Shadow Games
by Sparky She-Demon
Summary: What if there another half vampire existed? Cassie Flanagan is a telepath, telekine, and can fly anything. How does everyone react? Eventually there will be Teslen. Now open to anonymous reviews, chapter 16 has been posted.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Thanks to Blackwidowmistress and charterusian for getting this off the drawing room floor. This is my first sojurn into the wonderful world of Sanctuary, so please excuse any mistakes. Enjoy! She-Demon.**

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><p>Cassie Flanagan was on her way home from the pub that she and her twin brother Victor had frequented before he left for the US. She still liked it at the bar, because it made her feel closer to her brother even though he was thousands of miles away. Many things had happened the previous year other than Victor leaving: Seamus had gotten married, Matthew had been promoted to Sergeant Major in the British Army particularly young, and Luke had been promoted to Petty Officer in the Royal Navy. In fact, the only kid in the family that had nothing happen to them was her. But her father was confident that something would happen to her this year. He'd said to her,<p>

"_Your time will come, Cassandra. You just be patient."_

Being patient for something interesting to happen was _not_ something Cassie had ever been good at. That was her Black Irish heritage making its presence known.

When Cassandra got to a place where she could take a short cut home, she decided to take it. Unfortunately, she took a wrong turn into a dead end alley.

"Damn", she muttered. As she went to turn around she saw a group of three men. And they were walking towards her.

As they got closer, she asked

"What do you buggers want from me? I have nothing worth stealing."

One of them, obviously the leader of the little group said

"You Miss. We want to steal you."

After that a fight ensued. Even though the odds were against her, Cassie still put up one hell of a fight. After finally managing to knock her out and loading her into the carriage, one of them said,

"That one sure was a jezebel. Must be the Irish blood."

"Let's get back to the House. And preferably before she wakes up."

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><p>When Cassie next came to, she was in a cell and chained to the wall by her ankles. She got on her feet and explored what she could of the cell she was in. Before she got around, several guards came in.<p>

"What the bloody hell do you blokes all want?"

All of them remained silent as they were forcing her into manacles. After they finished up, the men forced marched her out of the cell. She didn't make it easy for them, so what would've taken five minutes, took much longer. One her captors got her to where they wanted her to be, which was a room that had a chair with straps to hold her down. Soon after they'd managed to strap her down, the men took the manacle off her right arm. Of course Cassie managed to get in a punch or two in, before they tied it down again. As the group filed out, Cassie yelled once more,

"What do you want?"

A sinister chuckle from behind her was her only answer. Cassie tried to get a look at the owner of the voice, but was unable to do so due to the strength of the straps restraining her.

"Whoever you are, show yourself!" She demanded her voice hard and emotionless.

"You really are not in the position to make demands but since I have to get closer to you to administer the dose, I guess that now is as good a time as any."

As the owner of the voice came into view, Cassie observed him closely. He was obviously on the younger side of things. He had that confident walk about him; he was obviously born into money, and a lot of it. The only thing marring the upper crust countenance was a broken nose. In his hands was a tray with a syringe filled with some sort of liquid. In the poor light, it looked like…blood.

"What's in the syringe, blood?"

"Very good, but it is so much more than just blood. This is the sacred blood of kings."

"That's all very well and good, but what does it have to do with me?"

"You, young _lady_ are the last chance for my group to get what they want."

Getting seriously afraid now, Cassie asked,

"Who are you guys and what do you want?"

"We are Freemasons and what we want… it'll become clear what we want in two weeks or so."

"What are you going to do with the "blood of kings"?"

"Why inject you with it of course. Have no fear, I'm a doctor." The man said with a malicious grin on his face.

Two more men appeared behind the doctor. She recognized one of them as the leader of the little group that had taken her. Before she could say anything, a rag was stuffed in her mouth to stifle her yells, as the syringe pierced her skin and the blood was injected into her.

Cassie tried to fight the fog that the blood had put her in. It was making her particularly sleepy. Shortly before losing consciousness, she heard the "doctor" say,

"Take her to her new cell. Make sure she has everything that she could ever want."

Soon after that, she lost consciousness, and didn't know what was happening to her or what had been done.

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><p>When Cassie finally regained consciousness, she was able to tell that it was night. Even though there were no windows in her cell, she could feel it in her bones. After that, she noticed that she was in a different cell from before. This one was much bigger; there was an actual bed and a little table with a chair. And on the table was some actual food. Without even thinking, Cassie ran towards it and immediately started wolfing it down. Once she was done with the bread, she reached for the ale to wash it all down with. Just as she was about to take her drink, several familiar smells were approaching her cell.<p>

"_Whoa since when did I have such a sharp sense of smell? And why do I feel like I'm still hungry, I just ate all that food, I shouldn't be hungry."_ She thought to herself.

The same group of men from before entered her cell. But instead of taking her anywhere, they just chained her to the wall, both her arms and her legs. While they were doing this, she became focused on their necks, for reasons unknown to her as of yet. She could hear their heartbeats, each of them at different rates, some faster than others. One of them said,

"Hey, her eyes are all black. Tell Farrell that it worked, that they have what they want!"

"_My eyes aren't black. They are brown. And what is it that he wants so badly?_"

Then Cassie noticed something else. She noticed that there was a little mirror in the cell. The reflection was not what she had expected. Instead of her normal reflection, she saw someone with eyes that were entirely black. As soon as she realized this, Cassie became wracked with pain, mostly in her mouth and her hands. When the pain eased momentarily about five minutes later, she looked in the mirror again and was horrified. Instead of her normal teeth, in her mouth were sharp, pointy teeth, with the canines being particularly prominent. Then remembering the pain in her hands, Cassie looked down at them. She jumped about a mile upon seeing that her nails had grown into about three inch long talons. Once she saw Ferrell she yelled,

"What did you do to me?" Anger was evident in her voice.

Ignoring her question, he examined her with a practiced eye from the other side of the bars. He seemed to be pleased with himself. This only served to make Cassie even angrier. Yelling even louder she said,

"What the bloody hell did you to me?"

Her voice had dropped several octaves, which only amused him more.

"I turned you into a being of a higher order. You should thank me."

"Thank you for what? Kidnapping me, taking me away from my family, they probably think that I'm dead!"

"They do think that you're dead. There was a fire in the area you were in last night."

At that, Cassie snarled in anger and tried to slice through the bars. Unfortunately, the chains on her arms and legs kept her from getting anywhere near the door. Growling, she said,

"What did you turn me into?"

"I just injected you with that blood. You turned into a vampire. Oh and by the way, the drinking of blood is necessary and not a myth." He said in an offhand manner as if it wasn't a big deal.

Cassie threw the flagon of ale at him through the door.

All Farrell did was laugh as he left. And soon after that, Cassie blacked out due to the now body wracking pain.

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><p>The next two weeks were a living hell for Cassie. Even though the Masons gave her all the food and drink she could ever want, they didn't give her the one thing she needed: blood, and preferably human blood.<p>

To entertain themselves, some of the younger Masons had taken to tormenting her by doing all sorts of things. By the end of the first week, it became obvious to Cassie that she could see in the dark as well if not better than during the day. Also by that time, due to the number of times they'd shot her when it should have been fatal, she realized that she couldn't be killed or at the very least, very hard to kill. A little while after that, she started to hear snippets of conversations in her head. They were obviously male voices, and in light of what had happened to her in recent weeks, Cassie was pretty sure that she wasn't losing her mind. She was hearing the thoughts of others. She needed to escape, and soon, because she heard of the plans for her, and Cassie knew that she didn't have much time.

Then one night after she had been in captivity for about two weeks (she had been marking the days on the wall with her rather sharp nails). Ever since she'd heard of the plans that the Masons had for her, Cassie had been focusing all of her energy on controlling the new physical attributes, namely the claws and her teeth. Since her eyes were already dark anyways, she put the least amount of energy into controlling that reaction. Even though she'd only been this way for a few weeks, she knew that having this level of control in that short a time frame was uncommon under the best of circumstances, which these certainly were _not_.

It was time for the evening meal. The Masons had still given her food and drink, but never the sweet nectar that was blood. Today she noticed that they'd sent a dumb brute of a guard. The joke was that he was as big and as strong as an ox, and _almost_ as intelligent. It didn't matter to Cassie. This guard was her ticket out of here. She then began to use what her father and brothers called her feminine wiles. In a soft voice she asked:

"Could you please take these chains off so I can eat?"

"My superiors said…"

Cassie then said, in a slightly seductive voice:

"Your superiors don't need to know this ever happened."

After a few more sultry looks, the guard smiled crookedly. Relenting, he said:

"Ten minutes. No more than that."

Cassie waited impatiently as he unlocked her chains first from her legs. And no sooner had he unchained her hands, she had swung her legs under his and his ass was on the stone floor. He got up slowly, but she managed to knock him out.

Knowing that she had a very narrow time window in which to escape, Cassie figured,

"_Well, guess I should take a drink for the road. Bottoms up."_

Not yet feeling comfortable with going for the jugular, Cassie decided to go for the wrist. Lengthening her nails, she slashed the unconscious guard's wrist. Not wanting to waste any more time, she forced herself to drink the blood.

After the first few swallows, Cassie got more used to the taste.

"_My God! The power that comes with this… is awe inspiring"_

Finishing up, she wiped her mouth on the back of her arm. Not caring if the guard was still alive or not she walked out of the cell.

Using the guard's memories, she weaved her way through the Mason house, dodging everyone. Once outside and a safe distance away she thought,

"_I will exact my revenge on these people who chose to play God with the lives of others. But I know I need to plan my revenge out carefully. If I don't want to attract the wrong kind of attention, I can't always rely on the off chance that I can get my hands on human blood. I'll have to find a secondary blood source, most likely some sort of farm animal. But what to do after I exact my revenge? Definitely get the hell out of England."_

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><p><strong>121 years, and 10 months later…<strong>

February in the New Mexican Rocky Mountains was cold as hell. Trying not to think about how cold he was, Will Zimmerman rounded the corner of one hangar to head into another.

"Will, you got anything yet?" came Henry's voice

"Henry, the only thing I've got, despite the coat I'm wearing, is frostbite. This place is abandoned and has been for years."

"Well we got a reading here which said that there was some sort of Abnormal here…"

"I know Henry, but even you couldn't get a precise lock on the location any further than this airfield."

"I'm doing the best I can to refine the search. Wait… Will head to the hanger to your 10:00."

Rolling his eyes, Will indulged his friend. He headed over to the new hangar. Not expecting anything other than what was in the other ones, he wasn't as careful in the examining of his surroundings. Soon after getting inside the new hangar, he saw movement to his left and the slam of a gun barrel to the side of his head, knocking him down for the count.

"Will, do you copy? This is Henry. Come in Will. Aw, Crap! Doc, Kate we need to meet at the northwestern hangar, Will's not answering the walkie."

As they all made their way to that particular hangar, they maintained radio silence. Once they all got to the left side of the hangar, Magnus told Henry,

"Get out that thermal imagery radar try to try and see what's in there."

As they got closer to the opening of the hangar they managed to see Will and a humanoid figure crouching next to him with their back to the other three. Reaching for the walkie that was just out of reach, it flew into the figure's hand, which was quickly disassembled into pieces. Backing away from the opening, Helen said,

"Obviously humanoid Abnormal, with telekinetic powers."

"So we must be even more careful than we usually have to be."

After a few more minutes of careful planning, Helen, Kate, and Henry came into the hangar, and the figure still had their back turned away from them. Just as they were about to make their presence known, Kate stepped on a branch. The figure's head twitched and all of the sudden all three of them were taken into the air and were imprisoned in rope traps. Helen had managed to get a shot off before being caught entirely by the trap, getting the figure in the shoulder, wounding it.

This got the being's attention. She (upon finally showing her face) began to swear in many languages starting with,

"Sranje! Gamóto!" and leading to even worse phrases in many other languages, most of, but not all of them, Helen recognized and could speak herself.

After about five minutes of intense invective, the girl began to repeat herself. Interrupting her Helen said,

"Quite the impressive stream of obscenities, I particularly liked that final phrase in Serbian."

Turning around, the girl said, in a deep voice, baring her teeth.

"Did you? Did you also enjoy shooting me?"

Helen finally got a good look at the girl. Dark brown hair, roughly Kate's height, eyes black with rage, and now that she'd taken her coat off, she could tell that what should have been a rather nasty wound, was healing right before her eyes. She only ever had seen that kind of healing on someone else who she shot on a regular basis.

"You're a vampire"

The girl laughed saying,

"Highest marks."

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><p>In the meantime Will was lying on the floor of the hangar, waking up again. He had been unconscious for a while, he had no idea for just how long and he opened his eyes wide, taking everything in before he remembered what had happened. His head was aching and he was still a bit out of it but he got there slowly. He carefully got up and after the couple of seconds he spent swaying on his feet; he got a grip and could move around without having to fear of blacking out again.<p>

Helen frowned. She had thought that Nikola was the last and only vampire on earth. So how was this possible? Surely, he would have told her if he'd have known. There were so many questions flooding her mind and she tried to bring them in order before asking them. She decided to start with the easy ones.

"What's your name?"

"Cassandra Elizabeth Flanagan, though I prefer Cassie."

Now that Helen had a name to go off of, things could go easier.

"How old are you?"

Cassie smirked slightly at that question. Henry and Kate exchanged a look. Did vampires take lessons in smirking like that?

"I am about 141 years old. Give or take a few months. One kind of stops counting after the first 100, don't you agree Doctor Magnus?"

That got the attention of the three of them. They hadn't given their names yet. Either she was a real good guesser, or she was… Helen then asked,

"You're a telepath aren't you? Along with some telekinetic ability?"

"Yes I am. And you can tell Henry and Kate that if I was going to kill them, I would be looking for a place to hide their bodies by now."

Helen rolled her eyes. Vampires always were a little on the melodramatic side, which led her to another question.

"I didn't know there were any other vampires anymore… How long have you been one?"

"I've been a vampire since 1890 no thanks to some English Freemasons who thought they could play God with the lives of others. They kidnapped me off the streets of London and then made it look like I died in a fire to explain the lack of a body."

Helen, being familiar with the Freemasons and had dealt with her share of trouble from them over the years, was not surprised that they would do such a thing.

"You're from London?"

Cassie shook her head.

"I'm from Ireland, Dublin to be exact. My Dad moved the family to London when I was about 10." While saying that, she intentionally let her brogue become obvious.

That would explain her use of some of the more anachronistic swearwords. What had been profane in her home era, some of it had changed.

There was only one more question that Helen hadn't yet asked Cassie.

"Do you feed on humans? Because I can help you with that."

"Yes I do feed on humans sometimes. And how can you help me with that?"

"Medication. It's worked before."

Cassie seemed to think over the answer, studying Helen in silence for some time before she eventually decided that she was telling the truth and meant her no harm. For now anyway. She slowly released Helen from the bonds then.

"Thank you." Helen smiled reassuringly, rubbing her wrists briefly, "It won't do you any harm and I do not want to hurt you again, either. I want to help you. If you'll let me."

The girl remained silent, not sure of what to make of Helen and her words. She couldn't quite understand why she'd want to help her. They did not seem too fond of the idea. Quite frankly, she couldn't blame them and she nearly snarled at them but decided against it. Helen seemed eager and honest enough to mean her words, and after a quick mind scan, Cassie freed the other as well.

"Come to the Sanctuary with us." Helen offered then, still smiling at the girl.

Henry and Kate exchanged a quick look. This would not end well. They already had enough trouble with Tesla but another vampire around? This could not be a good thing.

"Doc are you sure that this is a good idea? You know better than anyone how much trouble one vamp can cause without even trying."

"I gotta agree with Hank here, Magnus. One vampire is trouble, two vampires could be…" Kate started.

"Two vampires would most likely be a mushroom cloud waiting to happen." Will finished.

Cassie turned around and said with a smirk,

"So good of you to join us. How's the head?"

"It hurts no thanks to you."

Noticing Will had picked up his gun, Cassie warned,

"If you think you can outdraw me, you are seriously mistaken."

Will replied,

"There are four of us and only one of you. No one, not even a vampire can beat those odds."

Cassie kept on smiling, as if she knew something that all of the others still didn't.

"What if I still had superior firepower?"

"Unless you can grow extra arms…" Will trailed off as the noise of an airplane engine revving jarred their ears. Only Cassie seemed unfazed. She then started talking.

"About damn time you made your presence known. What took you so long?"

She turned around and faced Will asking,

"What if I had six .50 caliber machine guns ready and waiting to fire?"

Then the Sanctuary team got itself a treat that _none _of them had ever seen. An airplane from World War 2, rolling out on its own, made a noise that almost sounded like a reply to Cassie's question.

"You do not need your beauty sleep. Besides, we have company and an offer of a new home. You like that, old girl?"

Meanwhile Will, Kate, and Henry were thunderstruck. Helen as always recovered her sensibilities first to ask,

"What is that?"

Cassie smiled saying,

"This happens to be a _sentient _Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighter."

With three of the four still not believing their eyes, Cassie decided to simplify it for them.

"Just think of Herbie the Lovebug, only with an airplane."

Turning to Helen, Cassie asked,

"Is the offer still open?"

"Yes it is. I'm looking forward to investigating that airplane of yours."

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><p><strong>AN 2: So... What do you guys think?**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

**A/N: Many thank you's to chartreuseian, agrainne24, and HAPsdontkill for their help with this chapter. Apologies to pumpkinnubbin, I forgot to mention her in the previous author's note for her initial help on the first chapter. For grammar, thanks Haku2009. And to those whose names I can't remember, thank you. Enjoy the chapter. She-Demon**

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><p>Cassie looked down at her new place of residence from the air. It was an impressive specimen of Gothic architecture. As she touched down, the Thunderbolt made a purring noise only she could hear through the roar of the Pratt &amp; Whitney engine. She was happy that it was making its final touchdown of the journey. Even with the assistance of the drop tanks, it still had taken three stops to get to the Sanctuary. Since she didn't keep a lot of liquid cash with her, she'd had to dip into her account that Mr. Donovan had helped her set up after the war to pay for the aviation-gas. At one of her stops, they'd tried to fleece her, thinking her to be a young girl out on her own for the first time.<p>

"_Boy they were surprised!" _She snickered at the thought.

But once that brief moment of glee left, a nervous energy took over. Cassie had actually let the Thunderbolt do most of the actual flying, especially while they were over water.

Once the Thunderbolt finished taxiing into the hangar and popped the hatch on the cockpit, it made a rumbling noised that basically said, "Stop lollygagging and get out of me." Giving the plane a dirty look, Cassie got out and went to the underbelly to get to the cargo hold which carried her belongings. Impatient for the hold to be empty, the Thunderbolt emptied it on its own.

Quickly, Cassie began to gather her belongings; she asked irritably, "You did that on purpose didn't you, Gwen?"

As Cassie picked up her stuff, she came across one of her favorite pictures. It was one from World War 2 of her, General Donovan, and the Korda brothers. The picture had been taken in June or July of 1942, shortly before she was sent to Italy. Those first four months in England had been busy ones for her. She'd weeded out some traitors to the war effort who happened to be Masons. What had pleased her even more was that some of the older ones had been the youngsters that had tortured her back in 1890. Some of them had heart attacks, others she interrogated. Unfortunately, some of her more…_creative_ methods of interrogation necessitated her leaving England for a while.

Soon after she finished up, Cassie sensed a presence that she had noticed back in New Mexico. Gwen also made a warning noise to notify her that she was no longer alone.

"With all the things I've seen while working here, I didn't think that there would be anything that could surprise me. But that airplane of yours is definitely one of the weirder things I've seen. Is it a real P-47?"

Since she was in a good mood and the young man's interest in the airplane was genuine, she decided to talk, "Yes she most certainly is real. I got her soon after the war ended, right off the test field. They were having trouble getting Gwen here to fly because she was already as she is and was being rather uncooperative. When I asked them to give me a shot with her, they let me. It probably didn't hurt that I had my friend Col. Gabresky. Once I got behind the stick, she handled like a dream." Cassie smiled at the memory.

"Gwen?" Henry asked, surprised that the plane had a name.

Snapping out of her reverie she replied, "Yes, Gwen is her name. It might be a good idea to introduce yourself, since you're going to be the one that's going to be poking around her."

Henry looked at her like she was crazy. Cassie gave him an expectant look, before transmitting, "_Look just humor me. Gwen starts firing her guns when she gets spooked. I don't want there to be any problems."_

After a few more looks, Henry decided to humor Cassie. He knew from reading material that the Thunderbolt could cause a lot of damage. And that was just the normal, non-sentient versions of the aircraft. He didn't know what this one was capable of.

"Hi Gwen. My name's Henry. I'm going to take a look around under your hood to try and see what makes you tick. I promise I won't do anything to hurt you." An awkward silence permeated the hangar until Gwen made a noise that Cassie had heard on very few occasions. Seeing that Cassie was listening to what the plane seemed to have said, Henry asked, "What did she say?"

Cassie grinned as Gwen made more encouraging noises. Deciding not to torture the young man with the suspense she said, "She likes you. Not too many people get that honor. I'm usually the only one she likes."

Henry breathed a mental sigh of relief. This would make learning about the airplane so much easier. Then he remembered something that the Doc had mentioned to him.

He asked, "When was the last time you had a physical?"

Cassie had finished cleaning up the mess, putting everything back where it belonged until she could find a more permanent place for them.

Answering the question she said, "The last physical I had was in 1942 when I joined the OSS. I haven't thought that one was necessary when I am the way that I am."

"Look, its standard operating procedure. Every time a new abnormal arrives; they have to get checked out."

All Cassie did in reply was roll her eyes and murmur something in a language that Henry didn't recognize. The only thing she said that he could understand was, "Behave yourself Gwen, and don't shoot unless you're feeling threatened. Also, don't shoot to kill, not everyone is as sturdy as me."

"She's shot you before?"

"It wasn't on purpose. It was soon after I got her. Good thing bullets can't kill me, though those .50 caliber rounds did do a number on me."

As she went further up the walk, Henry thought, "_Only vampires can be so blasé about getting shot. Wonder what Cassie's take is on what Hollywood has done to vampires?"_

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><p>For the most part, the physical had been a lot like the one she'd had in 1942. Obviously it was higher tech. Unfortunately in the seven decades that had passed the need for one of the more (she thought) barbaric medical devices known as the needle had not yet been fixed. She had never liked needles, even before her kidnap. The kidnap had only exacerbated her intense dislikefear of the device.

Helen had quickly noticed Cassie's flinch when she'd seen the needles. She'd been silent for most of the physical, but her eyes had been watching every move Helen made. It was obvious that Cassie still didn't completely trust Helen.

"_Not that I can blame her. We've only just met. Also one does have to take the time when she was born into consideration. Irish born, late 19__th__ century, a generation after the potato famine,"_ her thoughts were then interrupted by a telepathic thought from Cassie, "_You understand why I'm cautious. My experiences with the English have been… strained under the best of circumstances. I'm from a people that are used to being screwed over by the English. Which begs the question, why are you helping me?"_

Helen decided to answer this question out loud. And she also had some other things to say, "For one thing, don't tar all of us English with the same brush. That was the government's doing, leaving your countrymen to starve. Individual people did do their honest best to help. As to why I'm helping you, you are an abnormal. I offered an invitation to come here, which you did accept. With accepting the invite, it does involve a physical for the humanoid abnormals. Also given your particular abnormality-" Cassie interrupted asking, "Are you talking about me being a vampire or are you talking about my telepathy and telekinesis?"

Helen closed her eyes and mentally counted to ten before continuing, "Given your particular abnormality, being a vampire, I personally would like to perform some blood tests, just to figure out some medical specifics."

Cassie was silent for a few minutes as Helen prepared the needle. When Helen turned around, she noticed that Cassie was staring at the needle with barely disguised fear.

"You're afraid of needles aren't you?"

Cassie smiled, but it was more of a grimace, before replying, "Never was a fan of needles, even when I was young. My… turning only made things worse. Are these blood tests entirely necessary, Doc?"

"It would help in understanding your genetic background, especially in figuring out where you got your vampire DNA from."

"That'd be interesting to find out." Cassie rolled up her sleeve.

Cassie winced a little as the needle went in. Once Helen got what was needed, she withdrew the needle. She also watched Cassie's skin stitch itself back up. It fascinated her how vampires did that, no matter how many times she saw it happen.

Helen was about to ask Cassie another question, when they heard gunfire from an airplane. Cassie was immediately up and putting her leather jacket on in a matter of seconds.

Noticing that her eyes were already black, Helen asked, "What's going on with your airplane?"

Cassie's voice was still relatively normal when she answered, "Gwen only fires her guns when she's in combat or spooked. I told her not to shoot to kill." What Cassie left unsaid as she ran out of the room was that she usually at least fought the person that spooked the airplane, and that it usually didn't end well for that person.

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><p><strong>AN 2: Who's found Gwen and would most likely spook her…? **


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter III**

**A/N: Much of this chapter wouldn't have gotten out of the drawing room without the help of Haku2009. Thank you. There will be some light Twilight bashing in this chapter. Hope everyone enjoys the chapter!**

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><p>He'd been on his way to the wine cellar from his lab. It was actually still well stocked despite his depleting it. Nikola wondered how Helen managed to do that while he was around.<p>

"_Then again, she has enough money to use as she wishes. If that involves indulging her wine habit and by extension mine, I'm not going to complain."_

Just as he was about to get another bottle of wine, Nikola sensed an EM field that he'd never noticed around the Sanctuary before. It seemed to be coming from outside the Sanctuary building, but still on the grounds. His interest piqued, he went outside to go and have a look around.

Henry couldn't believe it. There was a sentient airplane and _he_ was the one poking around her. He was used to talking to his machines, but having one "answer" back was amazing. Mercifully, Tesla had not yet found out about their being a sentient airplane on the premises and that there was another half vampire, and a girl at that!

Helen had told them not to mention what/who they'd found on their trip to New Mexico to Tesla. At least until the other vampire, Cassie arrived and they found out a little bit more about her.

Henry had gone back to the tool table when he heard the airplane make a noise, one that seemed to say "Somebody else is here". Then the wind shifted. An all too familiar scent was in the hangar.

"What are you doing here Tesla?"

"I was merely trying to find out what was giving off an EM field that I'd never felt before around here. What is Helen doing with this old relic when she's got the private jet?"

Gwen made a growling noise. Obviously she did not like being called a relic. Tesla unfortunately was paying too much attention to the plane's noises.

"Heinrich, is this plane… alive in a way?"

Crap. He wasn't supposed to know that.

Judging from Henry's lack of answer that he was correct, Tesla started to move closer to the airplane to investigate. Knowing that Gwen could be skittish, Henry suggested,

"Tesla, you might want to introduce yourself before you go digging…" The vampire waved him off.

"Relax wolf boy, it's just a machine. What could it possibly do to me?" He proceeded to start opening a panel on the side of the airplane. Gwen, who was spooked, started firing her guns.

Tesla got blown back towards the entrance by the force of the .50 caliber rounds. Once the short burst of bullets stopped, Tesla got back up and stretched.

"I admit that those .50 caliber bullets pack a punch, but it'll take more than that to stop me." He then began to use the magnetism ability to try and take the plane apart.

Henry's only thought was, _"This will not end well!"_

* * *

><p>Racing into the room, Cassie quickly assessed the situation. Gwen was firing multiple rounds at <em>another<em> vampire! He was managing to dodge several but judging by the holes in his suit he had taken a few good hits. He was also taking her airplane apart. Jumping between the airplane and the other vampire Cassie positioned herself in an attempt to stop the fighting before they brought the room down around them.  
>Gwen cease fire!" she ordered the airplane. The sound of her guns turning off and being placed on safety signaled she had obeyed unhappily. Cassie then used the telekinesis to put everything back in place. Now that she didn't have to worry about being caught in the crossfire and shot she whirled around on the other vampire.<br>"I liked this suit." Nikola's fangs retracted as he tried to straighten his clothes out but due to the bullet holes and the scorch marks there was no saving it.  
>"Who the hell are you?" she shouted marching up to him. "And what the hell did you do to my airplane?" Her fangs protruded as she gripped his collar raising him into the air.<br>He stared at her in shock. "You're a vampire."  
>"No shit. Now answer the question! What did you do to Gwen?" Her grip tightened as she slammed him into the wall.<br>Nikola smiled widely. "Well now this is interesting." His eyes blackened and his fangs returned. "Very interesting," his voice darkened.  
>Slamming a fist into her chest, Cassie went flying backwards into the opposite wall. Her rage exploded. She was going to kick his ass. Deepening her voice and letting her fangs out, Cassie said,<p>

"Finally, someone worth trying to kill."

"I don't disappoint!"

All hell then broke loose.

Helen walked into the room to find what all the commotion was about. Cassie and Nikola exchanged blows tossing each other across the room like rag dolls. Henry was picking himself off the ground after being tossed into a wall. Getting between two vampires fighting was a dangerous thing to do.

Making her was across the room towards them her voice boomed out, "Enough!"

The two suddenly froze mere inches away from each other fists poised to strike. Panting their eyes fell on Helen seeing the anger and annoyance at their behavior in her steel gaze. The two stood up straight adjusting their clothes awkwardly.

"Helen my dear how nice to you to join us," Nikola spoke fixing his suit. "Just so you know the plane started it."

Cassie's eyes narrowed. "She did not! You tried to disassemble her!"

"Semantics." He waved her off.

It took all Cassie's willpower not to send the other vampire flying. Helen groaned rubbing the bridge of her noise realizing that perhaps the others were right. Two vampires in a room together was not the best idea she had ever had.

* * *

><p>Sitting on the examination table Cassie watched as Helen and Biggie prepared her "medication". Nikola leaned over them instructing them on what to do.<p>

"I was the one to invent this medication for you Nikola," Helen countered trying to get him to back off.

"Well I'm the one who had to take it. I think that makes me the expert," retorted Nikola.

"Childish, completely childish," Helen muttered pouring it into a small glass.

Nikola smirked ignoring the comment. "You know after we're done here how about you let me finally take you out on that date?" Helen ignored him handing the glass to Biggie. "Oh come on. One date wouldn't hurt you. You could dress up, let me take you to a gorgeous restaurant and show you off."

"You are impossible." Helen shook her head.

Cassie found herself enthralled by the scene before her. She only wished she had a bucket of popcorn for the in flight movie she was getting to witness. They definitely had chemistry. Filing away this new information for a later date, she accepted the glass from Biggie.

"Thanks," she mumbled out not really wanting to take the stuff. But if it helped with the cravings and kept her from going vampire on some poor sap she might as well give it a try.

"All you have to do is drink it," Helen explained.

"Don't worry you'll get used to the taste," added Nikola with a smirk.

"Well down the hatch." In one motion she swallowed the liquid and immediately wanted to throw it back up. Coughing, she shot Nikola a dirty look. "Used to it? Why on God's green Earth would I ever want to get used to that?"

"Have some wine it helps." Nikola held out his glass.

She shook her head. "I don't do wine. Got any whiskey?"

Nikola smirked. "Well you certainly are interesting."

Parked on the couch Cassie downed a glass of Bush Mills whiskey in an attempt to burn away the flavor. She had to admit Nikola had been right alcohol did keep it down. Smiling across from her Nikola was quite happy with himself probably by the fact that he had been right not that Cassie would say those words allowed. She'd rather kill herself first, if she could that is.

Leaning forward he poured her another glass.

"Is what just happened a regular occurrence, because if so, I'd like to keep popcorn handy?" Cassie questioned sipping the drink.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," retorted Nikola.

Cassie raised an eyebrow in question. "Really? So you didn't notice all the sexual tension in the room?"

"I can't help it if women fall all over me. I really am a catch." He sipped his wine.

This almost caused Cassie to choke on her drink laughing so hard. "Please! I think someone has a crush on the Doctor."

"Jealous?" he quipped back.

Cassie sighed, suddenly being serious, "I mean it. What's between you too? There is something there."

He shrugged. "We've know each other since Oxford. Over a century. It makes you close."

Narrowing her eyes she wasn't buying it. "Come on."

"There isn't much to tell. She was engaged to John Druitt and after him she couldn't get serious with anyone again." He filled his glass to the very top.

"Why don't you show her you're serious instead of the constant flirting," Cassie suggested.

Nikola shrugged apparently serious conversations weren't his thing.

Several hours later, Helen went by what was now Cassie's room. Just as she was about to knock to check on her, her telepathic "voice" said,

"_You can come in. It's not like you have to knock."_

"It is a common courtesy, Cassandra. How are you settling in?"

"I'm settling in alright. I'm more used to sleeping in a hangar with Gwen when I do sleep."

Helen looked around at what Cassie had done with the room. She had a few books, some of them older than others. She also had pictures that showed her throughout the past century. Many of the faces Helen recognized, but there was one picture that seemed to stand out from the others. It was on the bedside table, and it seemed to be the oldest of the photos. Noticing which photo Helen was looking at Cassie said,

"That's my family. It was for my brother Seamus's wedding. That was the last time we were all together as a family. My brothers Matthew and Luke were on leave from the Army and Royal Navy for the wedding and they were going out for long tours after that. My twin brother Victor left for America about a month later to work on the railroads. I was the only one that stayed at home. I was unhappy that nothing happened to me that year. I didn't know what was going to happen to me."

"Where's your mother?"

"My mum died when I was ten. We moved to London shortly after."

"My mother died when I was young as well"

An awkward silence resonated through the room. Deciding to get back onto a more neutral topic, Helen asked,

"Do you like the room?"

"The room is great. It's definitely going to be more comfortable than sleeping in a hangar.

* * *

><p>The next several days were actually rather uneventful. Cassie and Tesla didn't kill each other; they'd actually reached an arrangement concerning Gwen. It was a "look but don't touch" arrangement as long as Cassie herself was in the hangar, and if it was violated… Cassie mentioned that there would be consequences.<p>

However, about a week after the "look but don't touch" arrangement had been reached; the entire Sanctuary heard the firing of six .50 machine guns ringing out in the night. When Cassie came out, sure enough there was Nikola right outside the hangar.

"You were told that I had to be in the hangar if you wanted to examine my airplane. I can't say that I'm surprised that you decided to ignore the possible consequences, but what's done is done. Now leave of your own volition, before I decide otherwise."

For the next few days, a particularly tense atmosphere permeated the Sanctuary. On the morning of the fourth day after the incident, when Nikola went to put on his shoes, his feet came into contact with something soft that did _not_ belong. Removing the foot from the shoe, he saw that about the first inch of the sock was covered in what looked and smelt like cream cheese. Abandoning the one pair, he got out the other three pairs of shoes he owned. Upon further examination, all of the shoes had cream cheese stuffed inside them. After removing the cream cheese from the shoes, he quickly washed his hands, getting the cheese off his hands.

Nikola didn't have to think very hard to figure out who had done this to his shoes. There was only one person that really had the guts and the motive to do this to him. Well, he'd show that Irish She-devil just who she was messing with.

* * *

><p>"Tesla!" the sound could be heard throughout the entire compound, through the entire city.<p>

Henry looked up at the smirking vampire working before him. Henry had no idea what he had done but whatever it was all hell was going to rain loose. He and Cassie had been working with Gwen for three days straight and had only come back when it was decided that they both needed showers and a clean change of clothes.

The doors to the lab where thrown open with enough force to dent the wall from where the doorknobs had connected with the wood. Henry stared wide eyed at the image before him. Standing there in full rage was Cassie dressed head-to-toe in hot pink. Henry correctly assumed that this change in wardrobe was not voluntary. Now that the shock was over Henry was trying with all his might not to crack up. She looked ridiculous and he knew that if he let one sound leave his lips she would kill him. Plus if he ever wanted to get near Gwen again it would be best not to piss off the woman who Gwen actually listened to.

Nikola looked up from his microscope turning around to face her looking completely innocent. If they didn't know better even Henry would have thought so. He could be very convincing.

"Cassie what brought on this sudden change in style?" he questioned her, sounding like he actually cared.

Her eyes darkened. If looks could kill. "You fucking bastard."

"Me?" He pointed to himself. "What did I do?"

"You know exactly what you did. You will pay for this." With that she whirled back around staking out of the room right past Will and Kate.

Both stared at her for a moment before breaking out into fits of laughter and turning red faced. She stopped fangs out glaring at them. This caused the sounds to immediately silence.

Biggie walking towards Helen's office with a tray of food stopped when he came across them almost dropping his tray. He said nothing only his eyes traveled around the group standing there. Cassie then stalked off to get her revenge leaving them all there. The instant she was out of earshot Will and Kate were dying of laughter. Biggie shook his head with a smile continuing on his way.

Henry, still trying to be somewhat respectful, stared at the vampire like he was insane. "Do you have a death wish?"

"Please, what could she possibly do to me?" he questioned smiling and returning back to his work.

Henry knew this was not going to end well. Nope, not in the slightest.  
>Helen glanced up from her desk as she watched Biggie step into the room. "What's going on out there?"<p>

He crossed the room laying the food out before her. "Tesla decided to change Cassie's wardrobe to something a bit more colorful. She didn't take it well."

"Children, I work with children." She shook her head thanking Biggie before returning to her work.

A few hours later, Cassie knocked on the door to Helen's office. She was still wearing entirely pink attire. The coveralls that she normally used when she worked on Gwen were filthy.

"Hey, Doctor Magnus, could I borrow one of the cars here, I need to go out and get some new clothes."

"Sure. Do you have a valid license?"

"Look, if I get caught, I'll just use the "Jedi mind trick" on the officer."

"I'll take that as a no then."

Later that evening…

"Cassie, have you ever seen _Twilight_?"

"No I haven't. What's it about?"

"Long story short there are vampires in it. What's your take on what the film industry has done to vampires?"

"Most of the time I find it amusing to watch. Why do you ask?"

"Just watch this movie with us. And you'll see why."

"Sparkling vampires?" Cassie stared at the screen as the credits began to roll. She turned to Henry. "Why? Why did you have me watch that? Are you trying to scare me for life?" Her gaze fell back on the screen. "My God what has this world come too?"

Henry asked,

"So do you still only find it amusing what popular culture has done to vampires?"

"This is probably the most… _obscene_ take I've ever seen on the vampire legend. Vegetarian vampires, please. And the sparkling in sunlight, UGH!" Cassie then got an evil grin on her face. Noticing this, Henry asked,

"Whatever you're thinking, it can't be good. Do I want to know?"

Cassie got up and got ready to leave the room she replied,

"I'm not going to tell you because I want you guys to have plausible deniability. But it's going to be funny, just wait."

Right after she left, Kate spoke

"Vlad didn't know what he was getting himself into when he ticked her off, did he?"

"God help us all!" Will replied.

* * *

><p>The next time a yell shook the Sanctuary was the following morning only this time the voice was not that of Cassie but of Nikola. Cassie at the sound looked up from her spot on the couch and just smiled. It was like music to her ears. Will, who was sitting at the table, eyes fell on her and he got a very bad feeling. Cassie had gotten her pay back and he could only guess what she'd done.<p>

Kate walked into the room red faced and gasping trying to breath. "Oh my God! Oh my God!" She collapsed into one of the chairs.

"What? What happened?" Will questioned.

"Nikola, he… Oh my God!" she couldn't finish a sentence laughing so hard.

"Breath!" Will ordered. "Now tell me what's happened to Tesla?"

She didn't have to answer because said vampire walking into the room. If Will thought the pink clothes had been funny this took the cake. Nikola, fully vamped out, was standing before them with hot pink hair. It was so shocking that Will couldn't even laugh all he could do was gape like a fish.

"Cassie!" his voice hissed.

Looking up from the book she was reading, her face gave nothing away. "Wow Nikola. What's with the new look?"

"You bitch!" he shouted walking slowly up to her in an attempt not to go on a murderous rampage.

"Bitch? Now that's mean. What did I ever do to you?" She just smiled at him.

"My hair! You crossed a line! This stuff will never come out!" He gripped the back of the couch his nails digging deep into the material.

"Me? You think_ I _did this? Why would I even dream of doing that? It must have been the same person who turned all my clothes pink. We've really got to track them down before anything else mysteriously changes color." Her smile only grew with each word.

Nikola stormed out of the room growling, tossing one of the chairs into the wall causing it to smash into a million pieces. Cassie had never been happier. Sweet sweet revenge.

"You're crazy. I mean it, insane," Will told her.

"He started it. Why do you think I went out yesterday?" She laughed laying back into the couch. The look on his face was priceless.

Henry walked into the room icepack on his face and collapsed onto the couch opposite Cassie.

"Dude what happened to you?" Kate asked when she was finally able to speak again.

"I laughed," that was all he had to say.

Nikola stormed down the hall straight towards his office to attempt to find a way to remove the horrific color from his hair. Tossing opened the door a sound caught his attention causing him to look up just in time to watch a bucket dump its contents all over him. The sticky substance covered him from head to toe.

"Cassie!" he roared.

Perking up at the sound Cassie sat up from her spot on the couch. The others all turned to her staring wide eyed in horror.

She shrugged. "What? He ruined every outfit I had. You know how much it's going to cost to replace it?" She got up making her way for the door. She wanted to see how her handy work came out.

Will, Kate, and Henry stared after her for a moment before jumping up and scrambling after her.

Cassie went straight to his lab only to find a trail of footprints leading away from the door. Following them she came up to Nikola's room. She decided on the direct approach and knocked on the door.

"Come in!" a surprisingly calm voice of Nikola called.

Unsure she turned the knob on the door only to find the room empty except for the ruined suit tossed into the trashcan.

"Cassie?" Will spoke from behind her his eyes falling on the suit. "What did you do?"

She never got to answer as the door to the bathroom opened. They turned to see Nikola step out in nothing but a rob drying off his face with a towel.

Kate stuck her head into the room. "Is it safe?"

"I'm not going to attack if that's what you mean," Nikola replied tossing the towel onto his bed.

Henry stepped inside looking Nikola over. "So." Nothing seemed different about him. Well except for the pink hair. "What was the shouting about?"

Nikola said nothing, he only glared at Cassie. She smiled back cheerfully.

"What are we missing?" Kate asked.

Nikola still said nothing only make his way over to his closet. It wasn't until he passed by the window that they saw. The light shined on him briefly.

"Oh my God!" Henry gasped. "You're sparkling!"

"What?" Nikola raced over to the mirror. "Dammit!"

He whirled around on Cassie who said, "Glitter is a bitch. You never seem to be able to get it off."

Nikola clinched his fist but said nothing. Actually to all their surprise all he did was head back into the bathroom slamming the door shut.

"Cassie! You're asking for this to get out of hand!" Will scolded.

"Please. I've only done anything out of retaliation. He can stop this at anytime." She left.

"You know this is going to get crazy right?" Kate questioned.

Will rolled his eyes. Two stubborn vampires in a building together. How did they not think this wasn't going to happen?

* * *

><p>An explosion sounded across the Sanctuary. Cassie was thrown back into the wall as glass shattered. The Nubbins were frozen in fear for a brief second before disappearing right before her eyes. She could hear the patter of their feet as they all made a mad dash out of the enclosure. Some brushed past her in their haste. She didn't move, didn't even blink until silence filled the room. Finally her gaze drifted to the other vampire frozen in the doorway.<p>

"Oops." He smiled nervously the realization of what had happened hitting him.

Helen was going to kill them.

"What the hell were you two thinking?" Helen shouted at the two vampires sitting before her. They cowered in fear. "You could have destroyed this Sanctuary! The Nubbins caused massive damage as it is! All over some stupid prank war!" They flinched as each word left her mouth.

"It was just a minor-" Nikola never finished as Helen cut him off in all her rage, "Don't even think of justifying this! It never should have gotten to this point!" Helen breathed in trying to calm herself. "Now you both are going to clean up the damage that was done and then you both are going to clean the Canis Locor's enclosure."

"But-!" Cassie began but one look from Helen quickly silenced her. "Yes ma'am."

They had been cleaning the enclosure for about two hours. Cassie had managed to find an old gas mask for herself so she could still breathe.

Cassie shot a particularly nasty glare at Nikola.

"This is all your fault!" she hissed.

"You started it!" retorted Nikola shoveling dung trying not to breathe.

"I started it?" She laughed. "Please! I wasn't the one that set those invisible rats loose with an explosion!"

"I didn't start but I sure as hell finished it." He smiled in triumph.

"You're the one who started this whole thing because you wouldn't listen to me! All you had to do was obey my rules about Gwen but oh no Nikola Tesla is too good to obey a simple rule!" She slammed the shovel into the ground harder than she meant to.

"Please you where being ridiculous! It's just a plane!" He tossed down the shovel ready to fight.

"Take that back." She whirled about eyes black.

"Make me," he taunted.

As Cassie was about to tackle him to the ground Helen's voice came over the speakers, "Both of you stop talking and get back to work!"

Grumbling they complied not wanting to get into anymore trouble. They had no intention of getting stuck doing this again.

It seemed to take forever until they were finally done. Both smelled like something had died and rotted for several months and both where too tired to even fight anymore. Cassie was making her way to the door forgetting about the wet freshly cleaned section of floor. Slipping she was sure she was going to face plant right into the floor when suddenly she stopped falling.

Arms wrapped around her waist. Glancing up she found the owner of said arms to be Nikola and for once he didn't have his signature smirk on.

"Thanks," she grumbled standing up. He nodded silently heading for the door. That was the first time since she'd met him that he hadn't acted like a superior ass. And though they had gotten in trouble the prank war had been kind of fun. Nikola was cleaver. "Nikola, wait!" She rushed over to him. "Okay, um, listen, I've been thinking." She found herself for once completely unsure of what to say. "You're not really so bad and I don't want to get in any more trouble with Helen so how about a truce?"

Nikola scanned her face. If he was being honest he liked her. She was the only one who could match wits with him not in the basic knowledge thing but exchanging remarks. She had quite a tongue. Besides she is the only other vampire out there.

"Okay." He held out his hand. "Truce."

She smiled accepting. "I'm hungry. Want to go out to dinner?" Nikola instead crossed his arms saying nothing. Her eyes fell on his hair still very much pink. "Never mind. How about a drink instead?"

He nodded. "After a show."

"Definitely." She bumped her shoulder with his. "See you in thirty."

Okay so perhaps they didn't start off on the right foot, but hey she could see them being pretty close friends; at least between the bouts of trying to kill each other. No more prank wars, just straight out brutal murder.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

**A/N: I would like to thank Haku2009 for all of her help, to IceShadow of Shadow Clan for providing inspiration and help where it was sorely needed, and to 2BeautifulBrownEyes for her help. This chapter is being posted during my vacation in Phoenix, Arizona on a computer that is not my own. To anyone else I may have forgotten, you are thanked as well! She-Demon**

* * *

><p>Somewhere deep in the northern reaches of Siberia…<p>

A group of fourteen men and one woman were sitting in a boardroom. It looked like a meeting of executives from any number of Fortune 500 companies. The woman spoke with an air of unquestioned authority.

"The terms of our arrangement have been finalized. Most of you gentlemen can leave."

At the nod of the man with the shaven head at the other end of the table, the other thirteen men got up and left. Once the last of them had shut the door behind them, he got down to business quickly.

"How did your latest project go?"

"Right down to business as always Mr. Kensington?"

"When you reach my age, young lady, one must get to business quickly or it may not get done at all. As your latest project was largely funded by my brotherhood, it is of intense interest to us as to whether it was a success or not."

If the woman was intimidated by the man, she didn't show it. Calmly she answered,

"The project was a complete success. The subject's DNA is stable and possesses all of his memories, which will be of great use to us, especially his knowledge of the network."

"Very well, as something of a reward, here is some information that my brotherhood thought you might find interesting."

Mr. Kensington handed a file over to the woman. Upon opening and reading the first couple lines, her eyes went wide in an uncharacteristic expression of surprise.

"This is serious information; you're not having a joke at my expense are you?"

"Ms. Whitcomb, this is not something that is joked about. We have been aware of her existence for quite some time."

Dana sat back down in a chair with an evil smile on her face. She murmured,

"There's another vampire in the world. And it's a female vampire; a matched set."

Mr. Kensington replied,

"And you know what they say: Two halves make a whole."

* * *

><p>After being told that she was coming along on a mission, Cassie had been looking for any kind of information about the Enhydra mermatis in the Sanctuary library. Much to her irritation, she'd found very little information outside of a book on mythical creatures. According to the book, they were said to be highly intelligent, very fast, and they had some form of telepathy for communication between themselves and other telepaths. Something that she would have to share with the good Doctor, was that the Enhydra mermatis highly distrusted humans, and with good cause.<p>

_"If they don't trust humans, then why are we trying to contact them?"_

A now familiar telepathic "voice" answered her question.

_"Doctor Magnus has her reasons. Besides, don't you want to find another species that has telepathy?"_

Grumbling to herself, Cassie replied,

_"I will admit that I find the prospect interesting. It's just that these abnormals are exclusively aquatic and… You are the only one that knows about my hydrophobia, Sally."_

_"I have been helping you with that. You are now able to go into water high enough to go over your knees. When I first met you, you wouldn't go into water higher than your ankles."_

_"Yes I know that, and I am grateful for that. It should come in handy on the upcoming mission. The Merotter prefers shallow water in which to play."_

_"Good luck." _

_"Thanks."_

"So how long is this mission supposed to last?"

"Five days Cassandra. Weren't you paying attention during the mission briefing?"

Cassie had been paying attention; she'd just been trying to contain her nervous energy. Helen, Nikola, Kate, Henry, along with herself, would be going to the east coast of the US, and they had five days to try and find the colony of Merotters that were attracting so much attention. She was not comfortable around water, which as far as she could tell with this group was considered odd as she'd seen them in some of their extremely limited free time swimming in the pool. She'd been invited, but she'd politely declined, not wanting to advertise the fact that she couldn't swim.

Once they got to the private airplane, Cassie suppressed a low whistle. While still being functional, this jet was better suited to carrying rock stars or royalty.

As they were getting ready for takeoff, Kate turned around and asked Cassie,

"I've heard stories about how some pilots don't like flying as passengers that they prefer to be the ones at the controls. Does that apply to you?"

She replied,

"I do my best to not put myself in that situation very often. But one thing that I've learned over the years is to not hold other pilots to my standard, which is a very high bar. I used to be like that."

* * *

><p>Once they were in the air for about two hours, Cassie tuned out the movie that Kate and Henry were watching, and started listening to Helen and Nikola. Not that the movie was boring or anything, she just wanted to see what those two were up to.<p>

She unfortunately came in on the middle of the conversation. She had popcorn with her this time so she sat back, relaxed and enjoyed the show.

"You know, I've always wanted to join the mile high club," Nikola remarked, leaning towards Helen with a waggle of his eyebrows. Helen turned to him with an eyebrow raised.  
>"Really, Nikola?" she demanded in exasperation. Nikola smirked.<br>"Always," he responded. He leaned back, sipping his wine. "You know, I'm sure we could both fit in the bathroom. Or, we could stuff the children in the bathroom, if that's what you're worried about."  
>"You're incorrigible," Helen scolded, a hint of amusement in her eyes.<br>"Ah, but Helen, can you imagine me any other way?" Nikola shot back.  
>"You'd be much less annoying," she commented, looking wistful.<br>"But so boring and ordinary," countered Nikola.  
>"Being ordinary isn't always a bad thing, you know." Helen turned back to face Nikola, smiling.<br>"You've been around the children too long. Being ordinary is always a bad thing."

Helen rolled her eyes and went back to whatever book she was reading.

Nikola was actually quiet for a few minutes. In fact, he was quiet for so long, Cassie toyed with going back to the movie. Just as she was about to get up to go back, Nikola started back up again.

"I still think that shoving all three of the children present into the bathroom is the better idea."

That got Cassie's attention rather quickly. Lumping her in with the children? She had to make her point and quickly. So projecting her thoughts to both Helen and Tesla, she said to him,

Cassie scowled. _"Don't lump me in with the children, you foolish old man," _she sent.

He jerked back, unaware that they were being watched. "Cassie!" he said in surprise.

Helen quickly went a little further away from Nikola. She didn't like having him this close. It was... unfamiliar.

_"You don't have to say my name out loud, you know. And I'm not one of the 'children'! I'm only fourteen years younger than you!"_ she said angrily.

Knowing that she could hear his thoughts, Nikola projected back,

_"Then who are you to call me "old man?"That would make you what, 141? When's your birthday, Irish She-Devil?"_

_"Yes to the second question, and none of your business until I tell you when it is!"_

Cassie scowled one last time at Tesla, and then went back to the movie.

"You missed a bit," Kate said.

"I think I got a far better show. Christ, you'd think they were married, the way they're carrying on!"

Henry and Kate exchanged a look while rolling their eyes. Noticing this, Cassie asked,

"I've been here for about five months. Throughout that time, Tesla has flirted with Helen almost nonstop. I don't know how much longer I can take it before I decide to lock them in a room, and won't let them out. How do you guys stand it without wanting to… to…"

Kate answered,

"Shoot them?"

Cassie replied,

"That's one of the things I'd like to do to them! Why hasn't anyone tried to make them see sense? If only you guys could hear what they're actually thinking while they're flirting while arguing!"

That got Henry's attention.

"You can hear their thoughts? Isn't it what you call "bad manners" to probe people's minds without their knowledge or consent?"

"You are right Henry. It is extremely bad manners for a telepath to do such a thing. But I don't have to probe their minds to hear what they're thinking while they're talking. Boy, those are some rather interesting conversations, if only they actually said what they were thinking…" Cassie trailed off with a smirk.

"What are they thinking?"

"Tesla's thoughts were easier to pick up on, and I don't think that anyone needs to guess that his were of a lascivious nature. Helen's were more… complicated. But there are some romantic feelings for Tesla buried in there, not that she'd ever admit to them out loud."

Henry rolled his eyes. As often as Vlad was rude to him, it was obvious that he made Magnus happy on some level.

"Come on; let's get back to the movie. We have about two and a half more hours of flight time."

While watching the movie, Cassie began formulating a plan in her mind. A plan that would put everyone out of their misery and possibly make two people happy that hadn't had real happiness in a very long time.

* * *

><p>Once they landed at the airport, Cassie was happy to have her feet back on the ground. Even though she preferred flying, she liked being on solid ground. One thing she did like about being close to the ocean was the smell. It was soothing and had been a constant thing for her for the past hundred-odd years. In fact, her birthday was coming up in a few days. 142 years old, and she still looked the same as the day she was taken. She didn't know what she was going to do yet, probably would wind up raising a glass somewhere and would get carded because she looked so young. She would have to find a way to get away from the others so she could celebrate privately.<p>

Once they got to the place they were staying, it was safe to say that she wasn't unhappy about the room arrangements. She and Kate would be sharing a room. Nikola on the other hand was not thrilled with the sleeping arrangements, he was sharing with Henry. Helen was the only one with a room to herself.

Cassie thought,

_"Rank hath its privilege; also rank hath its responsibilities."_

Cassie let Kate pick which of the doubles she wanted to sleep in first. She could sleep anywhere, even though she didn't need as much sleep as most other beings.

The following morning, Cassie was up with the birds. Normally she was the first person awake whenever she was traveling with others. This time however, Tesla was awake and already drinking wine.

"Wine at six in the morning seriously?"

Nikola retorted,

"It's not like I can get drunk."

Ignoring him, Cassie asked,

"Have you been drunk as a vampire?"

Looking at her like she was crazy, he said,

"Vampires can't get drunk. Lord knows I've tried."

"Maybe you haven't tried the right method." Cassie said with a smirk.

Putting his wine glass down and leaning back in the chair, he asked,

"So what is this mysterious method?"

Mimicking his motions, Cassie replied,

"It's really not that mysterious. Well, to you it might be mysterious." She snickered slightly at the thought.

Not amused about not knowing something semi-important about the Sanguine Vampiris, Nikola said,

"Get on with it Cassie!"

"It's really simple. A vampire just has to feed off a human that is drunk."

"And when did you figure this one out?"

"May 8, 1945 Paris. More commonly known as V-E Day. I was too busy in China on V-J Day to get drunk."

Unfortunately Helen had heard that part of their conversation, making her annoyance known by saying,

"Don't you even think about it Nikola."

"But Helen…"

"No buts, Nikola. Remember your promise."

The two of them then had an eye conversation, forgetting that not only was Cassie in the room, she could also hear their thoughts. Keeping her thoughts to herself, she thought,

_"It seems that I stand corrected. Tesla has fed on human blood before, with a consenting donor. _

Her thoughts were interrupted when Helen then started on her,

"Encouraging him, really?" She almost threw up her hands in exasperation but managed to keep her emotions in check.

Defending herself verbally,

"It was just a harmless question. I was simply sharing with him some information about vampires."

Shortly after Helen sat down and had some tea, the remaining two members of the team showed up, slightly bleary eyed.

After breakfast, they had work to do that would take up the entire day. They had to find these abnormals and quickly before the local population started actively hunting them down.

* * *

><p>For three days they all looked for the Merotters. And for those three days, they had jack squat. The little devils were very elusive and distrusting of humanoids. They could probably smell that Cassie, Henry, and Nikola were closer to the top of the food chain then they were.<p>

Of course the third day of the mission was July 20th. It was her 142nd birthday. And she had no idea what to do for it. One thing she'd known for certain was that she would keep it to herself. And she had.

Once Cassie figured she could make a clean getaway, she left the hotel and made her way to town. There was a small bar that both the locals and the tourists frequented. So she wouldn't attract attention. Unfortunately, when she tried to order a drink the bartender said,

"I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you for some form of identification."

Rolling her eyes, she showed the bartender the id. Once he was satisfied that it wasn't a fake, he gave her the drink she wanted, straight Maker's Mark. The man still gave her a strange look; apparently he wasn't used to someone so young in appearance asking for straight whiskey.

_"He has no idea. I was drinking long before there was a carding system. In fact, I'm older than the carding system."_

Once Cassie made sure that she was alone, she raised her shot glass and said,

"Happy birthday, Cassie, 142 years, my how the time seems to fly. Never thought that I'd reach this far. Many more years to come."

At that she knocked back the shot, enjoying the way the whiskey burned down her throat. Shortly after she did that, Cassie noticed that she was not alone. Kate had apparently noticed her departure and had followed her.

Just when Kate was about to leave, Cassie said,

"Relax, sit down. Take a load off. Have a drink, my treat."

"Vodka," Kate informed the bartender, and she got her drink quickly. Cassie was a little bitter about that, not that she was going to tell Kate...  
>They spent the fifteen minutes drinking in relative silence.<br>'So, 142..." Kate trailed off, leaving Cassie the option to close the subject, but she didn't. She was surprised that Kate had held out for so long.  
>"Yes, what about it?" Cassie raised her eyebrow, wondering where Kate was going with this.<br>"Well, I know Will has asked Magnus lots of questions about her life and I was wondering what you've done in 142 years," she waved to the bartender for another round.  
>"What do you want to know?" Cassie said, downing another shot of whiskey.<br>Kate looked at her like she was surprised Cassie was being so open about this, "Umm, what were you doing during the War?"  
>Again Cassie raised her eyebrow, "Which one?"<p>

"What were you doing during 1915?" Kate asked, pulling a random year out of her head.  
>"I spent a lot of time in Egypt. Ever heard of Lawrence of Arabia?" Cassie replied with a slight questioning tilt to her head.<br>"Nope, who was he?"  
>"Never mind," Kate was a little too tipsy for a history lesson, "I spent quite a lot of time in Eastern Europe."<p>

"The Doc knew people like... a few Presidents, Albert Einstein, Amelia Earhart... even Joe DiMaggio, what about you? Who have you met?"  
>"I didn't know many with the same status as Magnus' had, but there were a few people you might know of," She fiddled with an empty shot glass, "General Eisenhower, umm, General Milhailovich, Louis Armstrong, Al Capone, FDR-"<br>"Wait, wait, back up a second..." Kate interrupted, "You knew Al Capone?" Kate made a ridiculous squeaking sound, which Cassie was surprised to hear from the ruff'n'tuff, ex-freelance operative.  
>"He was a... nice guy, if you got past the whole 'gangster, crime syndicate' side, better than most human beings."<br>"How did you meet?" Kate asked, her eyes widened in shock.  
>"Our relationship was purely business oriented. It was during a time when I was an assassin; I used my... special skills to assist him. Plus, he was an Abnormal..." she trailed off, watching for Kate's reaction. She was not disappointed.<br>They were quiet again. Kate was digesting all this new information about her friend, and Cassie was getting used to sharing.  
>"Do you like baseball?" Kate asked rather out of the blue.<br>"Sure, I'm a Cubs fan."  
>"No way! Me too," Kate stated much louder than necessary.<br>"Yes way, I went to the 1945 Worlds Series. Lost quite a bit of money on that game..."Cassie lamented and Kate snorted, giggled at her snort, and almost fell off her stool.  
>"You know what," she said to Kate, "I think it's time we cut you off."<br>"Now don't be like that, I'm sure she's just having a good time," said a sleazy voice in Cassie's ear.  
>She jumped, how had he snuck up on her? Wow, she was really off her game tonight. First, not noticing Kate, and then not hearing this guy coming up behind her.<br>She looked at him. He looked like he'd walked off an SS recruiting poster. And she'd seen her share of those. 6"4, trim, with the prerequisite blond hair and blue eyes. And with an attitude to match.

"Do I know you? Because you look a lot like my next girlfriends." He whispered seductively, or his horrible attempt at seductiveness.  
>Kate turned to Cassie, a little wobbly and asked, "Was it just me, or was that an awful pickup line?"<br>"Nope," Cassie shook her head, "It was pretty bad."  
>Kate tried to stand, but was a little unsteady on her feet, so Cassie grabbed her elbow to stabilize her.<br>"Come on, Kate. Let's get out of the drunk guy's way."  
>"I'm not drunk. I'm intoxicated by you," he jerked Cassie's free arm, pulling her close to him and dragging Kate along with her.<br>"It's okay, you can bring your friend along," He studied her, "I definitely don't mind."

"Yeah well I do. Don't you know what "not interested" means?"

The guy thought to himself and smirked,

"Nope. But I like fire in my girls."

Cassie, half carrying Kate turned to leave. The guy grabbed and tried to twist Cassie's arm behind her, failing to do so.

"What I don't like is them using that fire to defy me."

* * *

><p>One hour later…<p>

Cassie and Kate were in the police station, waiting for Helen to pick them up. Cassie was _not_ looking forward to the conversation on the drive back. She knew that she would probably be the one getting blamed for this little escapade. But hey, her birthday only came once a year, and she didn't come looking for the fight, it came to her. Mercifully, the family of the assailant was not interested in pressing charges. Apparently her attacker had a bit of a record, and his family wanted nothing more than to forget that this ever happened. Of course, Cassie had made him look the fool.

"What did you do?"

Cassie winced at the tone in Helen's voice. It was the "I am definitely not amused by your behavior" tone and it usually meant that there would be some form of punishment involved.

Mercifully, a cop by the name of Officer Donahue intervened.

"Ma'm, it wasn't either of your niece's faults. Jacob West has been looking for trouble like that ever since he turned 18. This is just the first time a girl has actually said no."

"Is there any kind of paperwork that I need to fill out, to release them into my custody?"

"There are a few forms you need to fill out. But I can release them from lockup."

About five minutes later all three of them left, with Kate leaning heavily on Cassie. Once Kate was loaded into the back of the car, Cassie took the front seat and prepared for a diatribe.

"I know you don't need a lot of sleep, but Kate does. What were you two doing out this late when we all have to get up early, to go looking for the Merotters?"

Knowing that Helen would get it out of her sooner or later, Cassie decided to take the easy route.

"Firstly, I went out alone. I wanted my privacy."

"Privacy for what?"

Rolling her eyes, Cassie mumbled something that Helen couldn't quite hear.

"What was that, I didn't quite catch what you said?"

Speaking up, Cassie said,

"I wanted to celebrate my birthday, alone. My 142nd" she said before Helen could ask.

After a short ride in silence, they pulled up to the hotel where they were all staying. No sooner had Kate opened the door, she ran to the nearest trashcan and proceeded to empty the contents of her stomach into it. When Kate was finished, Helen and Cassie hauled her towards the room that she shared with Cassie. After making sure no one was around, Cassie used her telekinesis to get the key card out of her pocket and unlock the door.

Once they deposited Kate on the bed, Helen turned to Cassie, saying

"If she gets sick again, you'll have to take care of her."

"Don't worry Doc, I will. She is going to be _so_ hung-over tomorrow."

"Well, it's your fault."

Cassie turned to Helen in disbelief.

"How is it my fault? I didn't make her drink the damn vodka!"

"You are the one that gave it to her."

Rolling her eyes, Cassie couldn't argue with that line of logic. After nodding good night, she turned to her patient, who was not going to be feeling good in the morning.

The following morning, Cassie decided to be nice and let Kate sleep till 0900.

"Good morning Kate. Here's some water, get cleaned up and dressed the doc wants us out by 0930."

Kate grumbled, and stayed in bed. Noticing this, Cassie said,

"I really don't want to go all drill instructor on you, but I will if I have to."

That got Kate's attention. Upon getting up, a little unsteadily, she noticed that Cassie was bright eyed and unnaturally chipper, especially for someone who'd drank as much alcohol as she had. Before she went into the shower, Kate asked, with a slight whine in her voice,

"How come you're so chipper you drank twice as much as I did!"

All Cassie did was smirk and say, "Vampire" as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

* * *

><p>They all stood at the top of a water fall staring out onto the beautiful forest below. Cassie had seen many beautiful sites before but this was definitely in her top ten. Helen and Kate stood beside her, enjoying the view. Even Henry took a moment to appreciate the magnificence. The only one who had zero interest was Nikola, who found the whole thing rather ridiculous. What was the point to standing there and just staring at something? Seemed pointless to him.<p>

"Come on lets go! We have abnormals to catch remember?" Nikola pestered them.

Helen rolled her eyes at him. "Nikola. Take a moment enjoy the beauty. What's your rush? You have an eternity to live."

"I just don't see the beauty in all this. Unlike you. I could stare at you all day long." Nikola smirked while giving her a once over, lingering at some areas longer than others.

Helen rubbed the bridge of her nose in an attempt to stop the pounding headache that was coming on. "Fine let's go."

The other three turned away from the view to leave. Nikola had a triumphant smile on his face at getting them to do what he wanted. That was until something collided with his chest sending him flying backwards over the fall. The team whirled around just in time to see a ball of brown fur dive back into the water and Nikola's shoes has he crashed over the edge. The rushed over leaning over in an attempt to spot him. A loud crash told them he had hit the water. They knew he was fine but until he broke the surface of the water each held their breath.

Making the climb back down the falls they found Nikola stomping out of the water looking like a drowned rat. Cassie was the first to burst into a fit of uncontrollable laughter which only set everyone else off. Even Helen try as she might not to laugh cracked a smile. Nikola just glared at them his eyes darkening.

"I think we found the Merotters," Kate managed to speak between laughs.

"Those little buggers are dead!" Nikola hissed.

Once they made contact with the entire Merotter colony, Cassie was rather busy. She kept an open channel of communication between Helen and the head Merotter, Agzaral. After some convincing from Helen, he agreed to have the colony moved to the Old City Sanctuary. Apparently, the whole colony agreed with him, which was not something that was expected by any of the team.

* * *

><p><strong>AN 2: Sorry for the long wait! Something that I would like to know is everyone's favorite Christmas song. It will be immensely helpful in the next four chapters.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter V**

**A/N: Sorry about the wait. Things took a little longer than I would've liked. This is the first of four Christmas chapters. Helen and Tesla will be together by the end of the fourth chapter. I thank those that helped me especially 2BeautifulBrownEyes and Frozen in a Forever of Shadows. They know what they did. And thanks to anyone else who may have helped, but whose pennames I can't remember. Enjoy. Sparky She-Demon.**

* * *

><p>The Sanctuary on the outside looked like a Christmas card with all the snow. On the inside however, it was on the gloomy side. Cassie wondered why there wasn't much done for Christmas. Voicing her question to Henry, who said,<p>

"The Doc gets particularly morose around Christmas. She gets moody about everything that's happened in the past few years. We do have a Secret Santa exchange though."

Cassie knew something of what had happened in the years prior to her arrival at the Sanctuary. There was a room that no one went into, save Helen. Even she didn't have the guts to ask whose room it had been. But there was something that she did have the guts to ask about: Decorating the Sanctuary for the Christmas holidays. She just had to find the right time to do it.

The right time turned out to be a few nights later when most of the other inhabitants of the Sanctuary were asleep. Over the past ten months, she'd noticed that Helen needed very little sleep, not unlike herself.

Cassie had been stalking around the Sanctuary in search of food. Even though she didn't need to eat, she still liked the taste of good food from time to time. Especially during the Christmas season.

She'd walked by the room that no one went into other than Helen. The door was slightly ajar, and she saw Helen looking through what appeared to be old photo albums. Not wanting to bother her, Cassie made to move further down the hall, until she heard Helen ask from the room (Sometimes Cassie thought that Helen might have some telepathy herself),

"What is it Cassandra?"

"I was just looking for you to ask a question, it can wait till later."

She made to leave again, but Helen stopped her.

"Really, what is it? I was just leaving here."

Cassie waited as she watched Helen shut and lock the door. She looked at Cassie expectantly. Realizing that she was wool-gathering and delaying the inevitable, Cassie went straight to the point.

"I was wondering if it was alright if I put out some decorations for the holiday."

Helen's eyes widened in shock and Cassie backtracked, wondering if she had crossed some line she didn't know about. "If you don't want me to, that's fine..." Cassie rambled on nervously," I just... I just thought it would be, you know, nice."  
>Helen had recovered from her earlier shock and raised an eyebrow.<br>"It's so pretty here," Cassie gestured around her, "and it's a shame it doesn't get decorated for the season. There could be so much spirit," she gave Helen a wry grin, "not to mention cheer."  
>Cassie was a little worried when Helen didn't smile back. Ah, there it was; the Invisible Line everyone seems scared to cross. She didn't blame them, but somebody's got to do it. And if it has to be someone a little more resistant to death, so be it.<p>

"Helen, do you mind if I ask you a, um, personal question?" Cassie cautiously asked, completely ignoring all the signs telling her that maybe this wasn't such a good idea.  
><em>'It's for her own good,'<em> Cassie thought.  
>"What would that be, Cassandra?"<br>Cassie mentally gulped. _'Ugh, that's the __Doctor Zimmerman__ tone. That was kind of frightening, poor Will. Okay, Cassie. Don't chicken out now, even if she is a big, scary, powerful... __**older**__ woman.'_ Helen was giving her a **Look**. _'There's that damn telepathy again...'_  
>"Why don't you decorate?"<br>"And why do you deem that to be a personal question?"  
>"Well, I, um..." Helen was starting to make Cassie feel like an errant child.<br>"It was something Henry said." _Sorry Henry..._  
>"Ah," she nodded, "Henry." She didn't say anymore, and quite honestly, Cassie hadn't expected her to.<br>They were silent for a few moments and Helen's mind seemed to wander away from the present. Cassie watched as the woman seemed to sift through all the 200+ years of her life. She tried not to drop into her head, but the strong emotions of the dark haired woman in front of her pulled Cassie in.  
>In that brief second she spent in Helen's mind, she felt such an intense grief that was completely masked outside of the dark confines of her head. One word, or name to be more exact, seemed to be the cause. <strong>Ashley<strong>.

Then Cassie started to feel awkward. She didn't think Helen knew where she was anymore. When in such a state, Cassie had been in a few of those over the course of her existence, the lines between past and present turn into a blur, becoming one never ending personal hell for the Immortal.  
>Suddenly, Helen was back. And asking Cassie a question that snapped her out of her own memories.<br>"Why is this so important to you?"  
>"Uhm," Cassie gaped blankly. 'What? It's just decorating... Do I have to have an ulterior motive?' She thought, trying to deny, even to herself, that she had one.<br>Helen just stared at her, patiently waiting for an answer. When had this gotten turned around on her? Cassie started to feel a little guilty under the heavy gaze of this woman. She didn't think that Helen would give up; she was tenacious, like a pitbull.  
>"It's important to me because," it all spilled out in a rush of words, "this is the first Christmas I've spent with family in quite some time."<br>Cassie looked down at her feet, not meeting Helen's searching eyes. She was kind of getting emotional, which wasn't something she liked to do.  
>"Look, I don't know if you see me the same way, but this is the first family I've had in a very long time. You, Henry, Biggie, Kate, Will... Even Nikola are my family. As you can probably guess, making familial ties hasn't exactly been high in my priorities." She laughed humorlessly.<p>

Unknown to Cassie, a treacherous, silent tear had slipped down her cheek, betraying her innermost feelings that she tried to keep hidden. She was not unlike Helen in the sense that she locked away her painful memories for further torture later. She brushed away the backstabbing little tear, but more kept coming.  
>Helen pulled her down the hallway a little and onto one of the random couches that seems to be hanging around for occasions just like this. She took Cassie's hands in hers and gave her a tight smile. She waited for Cassie's crying to stop before she spoke.<br>"I'm honored that you shared this with me. I know that was probably very difficult. When you live as long as we do, opening up isn't really an option." She looked up and away from Cassie, eyes locking on the mysterious door, "Everyone is so... Fragile and one becomes out of touch when everyone around you dies.  
>"That room," she pointed at the door, "holds a lot of dear memories. But, it also holds bad ones. My daughter... was a very important part of my life. She was my life. As important as I deem my work, she was everything."<br>Her voice dropped to a dangerous level, sharp edged, hard, and cold. She spat her next words out, "Then some corrupt, power mongering group of business executives and scientists that had decided Abnormals were evil came along and stole her from me. They turned her into a mindless monster. The Cabal stripped her of who she was and turned her against us, against me."  
>Helen looked into Cassie's eyes and the wall that had been so firmly in place was gone. Cassie didn't need to read minds to see the intense anger and agony in Helen's eyes.<p>

"They gave me a choice; her or the Network," Cassie gasped and Helen nodded, trying not to get lost in the painful sea of memories threatening to flood her mind, "I chose the one that... Well, had to be picked. I knew that she wouldn't resent the choice. This Network is too important, and I have lost many things to my work. Every one is a burden that I bear willingly.  
>"That doesn't make it any easier, though. Sometimes I can't breathe when all of my choices wash over me." Helen's voice lowered into a pained whisper, "Sometimes I don't want to get out of bed and see my life reflected back at me. Sometimes I just want to give up. I am forced to play God again and again, and there is only so much one can take."<br>"Why are you telling me this?" Cassie asked her voice thick with tears.  
>"Because you would pick it out of my head anyway," Helen's voice had shifted back to a normal level and Cassie tried to deny that, but was cut off, "and because I trust you. You are a part of my family now. Time you knew what you have gotten yourself into.<br>"To answer your first question; yes, you can decorate. This place needs to be free of the doom and gloom that surrounds this season for us. And you are the perfect person to do it. It's time for you to spread a little cheer."  
>Helen stood up, leaving an astonished Cassie behind on the sofa. What had just happened? She wiped all traces of the tears from her face and sat back, still stunned.<p>

Mind reeling, she headed off in the opposite direction of Helen, needing to be away from the enigmatic woman who had just shook up her brain in a sort of therapeutic way... Maybe working on Gwen a little would clear her thoughts.  
>Cassie adjusted her course, and she went in the direction of the hangar, unseeing and astounded with a blank look on her face.<br>Of course, you know what they say about the best laid plans...  
>"Hey!" called a voice from the end of the hall. It barely broke through and sounded far away, even with Cassie's vamped up hearing.<br>It was Kate and she looked kind of pissed.  
>"I've been yelling after you for the past three hallways. What's up?"<br>Cassie gave nothing away, "Oh, just planning how I'm going to decorate."  
>"Decorate! What? She went for it?" Cassie smiled at Kate's shocked tone.<p>

"Yes she did. And I'd appreciate it if you could help me."

"Help you? Of course I will!"

Cassie smiled. But she put the conversation with Helen in the back of her mind. She wanted to focus in the now, where the ghosts of the past did not abide.

* * *

><p>The next few days Cassie was quite busy. She barely slept (not that she needed to) in her mission to turn the Sanctuary into a place of Christmas cheer. She decorated the inside first. There were some decorations from up in the attic that she was using, but those were not enough for what she had in mind. So she'd gone out for hours at a time. Cassie had been given permission to go all out; so she was going to do just that.<p>

The thing about the season that Cassie liked the most, after the food and the gathering of loved ones, were the lights. She usually went crazy whenever she could decorate with them. This year was no exception. She'd even decorated her bedroom.

Unfortunately, someone else had another idea in mind…

"What are you doing?" Cassie crossed her arms, raising her eyebrow at the older vampire.

"Putting up the lights," answered Nikola in a tone that said "are you blind?".

"Those aren't the lights I brought," Cassie pointed out.

"No these are better." Nikola placed hook the last of the lights up.

"What exactly are they?" Cassie asked nervously.

"I'm so glad you asked." He hopped down off the ladder. "These are star lights."

"Star lights?" Cassie did not like the sound of this.

"They replicate the shimmer and sparkle of a star in the night skin. I also have them set up to adjust brightness depending on the brightness of the room. They are also multicolored," Nikola explained.

"No." Cassie shook her head firmly.

"No?" Nikola questioned.

"No," Cassie repeated.

"No what?" Nikola wasn't getting it.

"No you can't put up those lights," Cassie clarified.

Nikola laughed. "And who exactly made you the Christmas police?"

"When it comes to one of your experiments something always happens. An explosion, fire, system surge, blackout..." Cassie listed. "I don't know what's going to happen but I know that something will. So we are going with the old fashion non dangerous lights."

Cassie moved to get up on the ladder to take them down.

"Oh no you don't!" Nikola grabbed Cassie around the waist dragging her off the ladder.

Cassie back headed him causing Nikola to drop her in surprise. "What the hell?!"

Nikola grabbed his nose blood trickling down. "Was that really necessary?"

"'Was that really necessary?' You fucking grabbed me and dragged me off the ladder!" she cursed at him.

"You were going to touch my lights." Nikola pulled out a handkerchief cleaning up his nose.

"Your most likely deadly lights." She glared daggers at him.

"Don't get your panties all in a twist. They're not dangerous. They are perfectly safe." He began reaching over to plug them in.

Cassie snatched his hand. "Don't even think about it."

Nikola rolled his eyes. "Get out of my way Cassie." She refused to move. "Cassie this is your last warning." Still she didn't move. "Fine."

Nikola grabbed her arm yanking her out of the way and into the wall. Moving to plug them in Cassie's face turned red in anger and she tackled the other vampire. This turned into a full blow wrestling match as each tried to reach the plug. Both now fully vamped out. Neither quite sure how they managed to twist themselves into such an awkward position. The only thing they knew was Nikola had somehow managed to grab the lights plunging them into the socket. The lights turned out and a beautiful twinkling filled the room. It looked just like a perfectly clear night in the middle of the wilderness.

"See. Nothing to worry about."

No sooner had the words left his mouth did each twinkling light began exploding send sparks flying. Nikola and Cassie dove to the floor ducking in an attempt not to get singed. Covering their heads they waited until the explosions stopped and the sparks had dissipated. Sitting up slowly they looked around judging to see if it was safe.

"You were saying?" Cassie asked, anger seething in every word.

Another light exploded causing them to dive to the ground again.

Once everything got cleaned up, Cassie said to Nikola,

"You know, if Helen didn't like you so much, I'd try to kill you."

* * *

><p>Several hours later…<p>

They had done the Secret Santa drawing. Cassie didn't quite think it was fair who she got, what the hell was she going to get the woman who had practically everything?

On her way to her room, Cassie stopped by the Merotter enclosure. They were taking to their new home quite well. Noticing Cassie, Agzaral swam over to her and asked,

"_What is on your mind, young Undying One?"_

That was what she, Helen, and Nikola were called by Agzaral: Undying Ones.

"_It's just something that a part of the Christmas season around here. We had to draw names out of a hat and you have to get that person a gift of some sort. And I have absolutely no idea what to get for mine."_

"_Actually you do have an idea of what to get her. Just use the plan that you've been formulating since before my kind came here."_

"_That plan? I'm going to need the help of who has the other person to make this work."_

"_I'm sure that she'll be willing to help you. She's about as tired as you are about the whole thing."_

"I have to go find Kate."

She left the Merotter behind, smiling slightly as her mind filled with all the things she could possibly do to make this plan work. Cassie enjoyed this form of mischievous chaos; it was slightly tamer than flying a plane during war time, but fun nonetheless. Plus, no one would get hurt... much.

A few minutes later she found Kate in the common area with a large bowl of popcorn in her lap, watching some late night made for television movie. Cassie stood in the doorway, watching Kate and assessing the likelihood of a rejection to her plan. She figured Kate would be glad to have something to do, she seemed rather bored lately. Deciding to just ask, Cassie jumped over the back of the couch and plopped herself down next to Kate, who ended up spilling popcorn everywhere in her shock.

"Hey!" Kate cried indignantly and she tried to scoop as much as she could back into the bowl.  
>"Sorry," the dark haired vampire chuckled, "anyway, I was wondering if you wanted to help me get the Doc and Nikola together."<br>"Together, as in _**together**_ together?"  
>"Yep," Cassie replied, "I'm honestly getting sick and tired of the mental flirting. If you had to deal with this all day every day you would understand the urgency. Personally, I just want to knock their heads together, but I doubt that will do much good. They're stubborn. But, I have a plan!"<br>"What do you have in mind?" Kate asked as she plucked a piece of stray popcorn out of her bra.  
>Cassie smiled wickedly and said, "We might have to bring Henry in. He'll be useful if we need anything technical done to the system. Meet me in the hangar in fifteen minutes; I've got some more recruiting to do."<p>

Ten minutes later Cassie found herself outside of Henry's lab. She shouldn't be so nervous, it was ridiculous. It was just Henry.  
>She took a deep breath and knocked lightly on the open door frame. Henry was so absorbed in whatever project he was working on that he didn't hear the knock. She tried again to the same result. Finally, with a sigh she walked over to Henry's work bench.<br>"Henry," she called as she stood beside him. Henry jumped and screamed a manly scream, sort of.

Cassie laughed and smiled at Henry, "Hey, Kate and I want to play some pranks on Tesla, I was wondering if you wanted to join in."  
>"You want to play more pranks on Vlad? I thought you two had a truce, or something..."<br>"Yes, well I'm not so good with truces," she grinned, "Plus, it's nothing to bad. I just want to annoy him. It's too calm around here lately."  
>He looked unsure, "I don't know, Cassie. This could end badly."<br>"Come on, Henry. For me? I won't let you get hurt, I promise."

"Okay, I'll help, but you better keep your promise. If this goes south I expect a bulletproof bodyguard."  
>Cassie chuckled and left Henry's lab with him following close behind.<p>

* * *

><p>"So, what's the plan?" Kate asked as soon as they walked through the hangar doors.<br>"Well," Cassie said, dragging out a dramatic pause, "We're going to steal Nikola's shirts."  
>Henry spluttered and Kate threw her head back and laughed.<br>"This is your grand plan? To steal his shirts? Well, this will be interesting," Kate snorted, and that caused Henry to start laughing.  
>"Yep, but we also have to get rid of the one on his body. Any ideas?"<br>"I could set it on fire," Kate suggested.  
>"Could work, but seems a little deliberate. Next?"<br>"We could spill something on it, something that stains."  
>"Hmmm, better, but what? Wine?" Cassie paced around a bit, trapped in thought.<br>"Okay, here's what we're going to do! Kate, I'm going to need you to run interference with Magnus, but only until we get Nikola's shirts out of his room. No longer, alright?" She nodded and Cassie turned to Henry.  
>"Henry, you are going to need to hide Nikola's shirts anywhere he won't find them. Think about where that would be in the next few minutes." She trailed off and her eyes glazed over.<p>

"And what about you?" Henry asked, and Cassie smiled.

Cassie was listening in on Nikola's thoughts. He was done working in the lab for now, opting to go and visit Helen for a bit before either returning to the lab or heading to the wine cellar, probably the latter. Cassie knew they had to get his shirts out now, and she had to go and ruin his other one, something she wasn't looking forward to. Nikola was particularly protective of his clothing.  
>Kate was already in Magnus' office, hopefully being discrete in her distraction, but Cassie had little hope. The Sanctuary team seemed a little inept in their acting abilities. Henry was inside of Nikola's room and Cassie was standing guard at the door and keeping tabs on Helen and Nikola.<br>Henry suddenly appeared with his arms fully of expensive shirts of all different colours. He seemed a little flushed, but Cassie blamed it on how difficult it must be to balance all of Nikola's shirts. Cassie was glad that she remembered to have Henry put a few of the cameras on a loop; it gave him passage way without having to worry about security cameras.

"Okay, I have them all. Where should I put them?" Henry asked a little breathlessly.

Cassie sighed, "That was part of your job."  
>"Yes, well you try it. I couldn't think of anywhere he wouldn't look."<br>"Put them in the Doc's bedroom," Henry grimaced when she said that, "Or Will's office."  
>"Will's office," he said immediately, "Definitely Will's office."<br>"Oh, and take the south corridor, you shouldn't run into him that way."  
>Henry started to walk away but turned back; his arms heavily loaded with Nikola's shirts, and asked, "Which one?"<p>

"You shouldn't run into Will either, he's avoiding the paperwork Magnus left in his office." Will really seemed to hate the paperwork.  
>Cassie then took off in the other direction. She had all of her items set up, waiting for her in a room near where Nikola would walk past soon. She had to hurry. The dark haired vampire ran at her full speed down the halls, beating Nikola by a minute, just enough time to get ready.<br>She listened as he came around the corner, waiting for the perfect moment to pop out of the doorway, red wine in hand. Cassie heard his footsteps come closer and closer. She stood perfectly still, not breathing.  
>Cassie thought the red wine seemed fitting. It seemed to be his and Helen's favorite drink –next to tea, for Helen- and a great catalyst for her plan to come to fruition. Cassie knew that it would probably take more than just this little escapade for them to get it through their heads- mainly Helen- but hopefully this would knock Helen off balance.<br>She knew what Nikola was wearing from Helen's head. Helen seemed to be paying an awful lot of attention to Nikola's wardrobe lately, especially the tighter pants, Cassie shivered. He was wearing a white shirt, a nice one too. Sadly, it had to go, for the greater good of Cassie's sanity and for their benefit. They had been dancing around this issue for too long.

Cassie suddenly stepped out of the doorway, trusting her instincts and walked right into Nikola. The wine spilled down the front of his shirt, waist coat, and jacket. Cassie watched with wide eyes as it dripped on to his shoes and seeped into the carpet.  
>"Oh, god. Nikola, I'm sorry," she picked up her wine glass which had fallen to the floor in their collision. There were still a few drops left in the glass, so she sipped them from the glass and said, "No use letting the rest go to waste. I really am sorry, Nikola. I had no idea you were even there."<br>He grimaced, "It's alright. I'll just go change."  
>Then the shirt started to disintegrate. Okay, she had forgotten about that.<p>

"The wine was a gift from a friend of mine, always a practical joker." She looked down, his shoes were toast but at least the carpet was fine.  
>Cassie released the air in her lungs in a great huff, "Well, I'll be going. Sorry about the shirt."<br>She turned on her heel and took off in the other direction. She sent a mental call to Kate, telling her to leave the Doc's office as quickly as she could. Then Cassie headed to the hangar. When she arrived, Henry was waiting for her and Kate came in behind her.  
>Cassie asked them as soon as they were sitting, "Everything went well on your end?"<br>Kate and Henry both nodded, and Henry asked her the same. Cassie bit her lip, "Not exactly."  
>"What?" Kate asked and Henry looked worried.<br>"The wine that I used was from a friend of mine, and when I spilled the wine on Nikola... It might have disintegrated his shirt," she mumbled the last part, not looking either Henry or Kate in the eyes, but before either could make a comment Cassie caught on to a thought from Nikola. More like a mental shout, but it found its way to her.

"Nikola has found his closet empty... and he's storming to Helen's office shirtless." The other two were silent as they waited for Cassie's play-by-play.  
>"There's some ranting going on about 'Wolf Boy', and 'Booty', and 'the Irish She-Devil'. " Cassie switched over to Helen's mind and wasn't surprised with what she found.<br>Helen was having a hard time focusing on what Nikola was saying. She was trying so hard to keep her eyes on Nikola's face, but they kept straying down to his bare chest, which even Cassie had to admit was nice. As soon as the Doc's thoughts started straying towards the gutter, Cassie knew it was a good time to switch back to Nikola.  
>While Helen had been ogling Nikola's chest, Nikola had noticed. A smile played around the corners of his mouth, and when Helen didn't notice that Nikola had stopped speaking it turned into a full-blown grin. Cassie could very nearly feel the ego boost in his thought, which weren't exactly pure either.<p>

Just as Cassie was about to duck out of their thoughts for a bit, Helen came back to earth. She was a little flushed and seemed shocked. The Doc appeared to struggle for words until she muttered that they would look for the shirts and if they couldn't find them, she would replace them.  
>Her outward appearance now gave nothing away, but inside her mind was reeling.<br>She gave Kate a look that told her Phase One had succeeded. They had shaken the unshakeable Helen Magnus.  
>"And Vlad is stuck going around shirtless until they find them, which won't be too soon." Henry had a smug look on his face.<br>"So, where did you hide them?" Cassie asked.  
>Henry replied with a chuckle, "In Will's file cabinets." Cassie laughed loudly and Kate joined in.<p>

* * *

><p><strong>AN 2: The Christmas songs will start to show up in the next chapter.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter VI**

**A/N: Many thanks to Haku2009, 2BeautifulBrownEyes, and FindingLight. They helped immensely in getting this chapter out. This is the second in the group of four. Also I do not own a character that was created and copyrighted by George Lucas, I'm only borrowing him!**** Enjoy! She-Demon**

* * *

><p><em>Dashing through the snow, in a one horse open sleigh, o'er the fields we go, laughing all the way.<em>

_Bells on bobtails ring, making spirits bright, oh what fun it is to ride and sing a sleighing song tonight._

_Oh, jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way. Oh what fun it is to ride in a one horse open sleigh. Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way. Oh what fun it is to ride in a one horse open sleigh._

"Oh! Jingle Bells! Batman smells! Robin laid an egg! The batmobile lost a wheel and joker took ballet hey!" Kate and Cassie sang loudly arm in arm as they walked through the rows of trees. They switched it up.

"Dashing through the sand with a bomb stuck to my back, I've got a nasty plan for Christmas in Iraq. I got through check point A but not through checkpoint B. That's when I got shot in the ass by the US Military." They laughed almost unable to finish as their faces turned red from lack of oxygen.

"How about Santa Clause, Santa Clause, Santa Clause is dead. Rudolph took a .44 and shot him in the head! Oh Barbie doll, Barbie doll, tried to save his life, but G.I. Joe, from Mexico, stabbed her with a knife!" Nikola sang joining in on their fun.

"Awesome!" Cassie exclaimed. "I hadn't heard that one yet."

"Come on guys stop mangling a classic," Henry scolded.

Kate rolled her eyes at the Hap. "Come on Henry. Lighten up a little."

"I happen to really like the song," retorted Henry.

Cassie reached down to the ground as suddenly as possible grabbing a handful of snow. Flinging the cold ball at him it smacked Henry in the face. The look on his face was priceless causing the group to burst into a fit of laughter. Henry, on the other hand, face grew dark his eyes locked onto Cassie.

She took a step back nervously. "Come on Henry I was just trying to get you to loosen up." Henry kneeled down grabbing some snow and packing it together. "Henry!"

She bolted racing as far away from him as possible. Henry went after her. Cassie kept glancing over her shoulder. On one of these glances she saw the snow shooting at her. She dived to the ground causing the snow to fly over her and straight into Will.

"Oh dude I'm so sorry!" Henry raised his hand apologetic.

Will in response grab some snow sending it straight at Henry who dodged the snowball. It hit Kate who joined in to the snowball fight. Before long the entire group was in a full blown snowball war. Helen, though she wouldn't actually admit it, found it rather sweet. It had been a while since that had all just enjoyed themselves together.

She would have let them continue if it wasn't for the fact that other people were trying to get Christmas trees and she doubted they would enjoy getting pelted in the face. "Alright that's enough. We have a tree to find remember."

Cassie giggled getting up off the ground she wiped the snow from her clothing. "This isn't over." She pointed to Henry.

"It sure isn't," retorted Henry.

"Come on you two let's find this tree." Kate grabbed their arms dragging them along.

"How about this one?" suggested Will to which everyone shoot their heads.

"Not big enough," Nikola replied. "But what about this one?"

To which Cassie retorted, "Not the right shape."

"Not the right shape? It's a Christmas tree!" Nikola glared.

"No she's right; it's not the right shape. It's lopsided," Kate pointed out.

This had been going on for a good hour. There was always a criticism. Too short, too tall, not enough branches, too fat, just plane ugly, and so forth. There had yet to be one they agreed on and it was beginning to frustrate the entire group.

"Perhaps this one?" Everyone turned their attention to Helen who was standing over besides a tree just staring at it.

Gathering around her the group began examining it. They were silent taking in the tree.

"I like it," Cassie was the first one to break the silence. "I think it's perfect."

"Not too tall, too fat?" Nikola responded.

Cassie shook her head. "No just right."

They stood there a moment longer before the group all agreed. This was the perfect Christmas tree.

* * *

><p>A few hours later, Helen was back in her office. Cassie, Henry, and Kate had been working with getting the tree ready for decorating. She smiled at the thought of the younger vampire fussing with the tree. Helen knew that it had been a good idea to let her loose with decorating for Christmas.<p>

It had shown Helen another side to Cassie. Like Nikola, Cassie hid behind the shield of arrogance and a "devil-may-you-care" attitude. Once you saw through the façade, one could see why they hid. They hid behind those shields, to prevent themselves from being hurt.

Helen's attention then turned to radio, which had been playing Christmas songs and carols pretty much nonstop since the first of December. The song that was just finishing up was "I'll be Home for Christmas". As she heard the last lines of the song, she remembered an early Ashley Christmas, when her daughter had only been roughly five years old.

"_I'll be home for Christmas, if only in my dreams."_

* * *

><p><em>Helen woke to the sound of her heavy oak door opening. She had to remind her old friend to grease the creaking hinges; it was something of an annoyance, especially when she had just awoken. Realizing that her door shouldn't really be opening, Helen was suddenly on guard. Slowly she reached underneath her pillow, to where her gun lay concealed. Her fingers brushed the cool metal, but then she heard a sound that made her release a small sigh of relief: little footsteps. <em>_  
><em>_She heard the small feet of the intruder cross to her bed. Helen opened one eye the smallest fraction, trying to see who this little prowler was. She was unable to see over her large duvet and would not be able to remedy said problem without giving up the charade of still being asleep. Helen felt the bed dip under a light weight and she shifted in her 'sleep'. The intruder stopped breathing and was very still. __  
><em>_When Helen made no other movement the trespasser giggled. She fought to keep her breathing even. Helen then decided that she would keep the creaky hinges, especially if it led to these badly concealed giggles that were coming from her daughter. All she wanted to do was wrap her arms around the laughing prowler and stay in bed. So she decided she would.__  
><em>_Quickly she rolled over and faced her blue eyed, blonde haired imp. Before she had time to react, Helen threw her arms around her small frame and pulled her into her side, and then she started to mercilessly tickle her daughter. Ashley started laughing until she snorted, which caused her to laugh even harder. Her daughter was soon gasping for breath, though and Helen released her as soon as she wheezed "Mum, stop it. Please."__  
><em>_Helen was still chuckling as she wrapped her arms around her daughter and held her close. Ashley snuggled into her arm and Helen dropped a kiss onto the top of her head. Smiling, Helen closed her eyes and settled back into her pillow, delighting in the warmth and comfort she got from sleeping in her own bed. She was also enjoying that feeling she got whenever Ashley was near, after she pushed aside the worry, that warmth from within that spread through her whenever they had moments like this. __  
><em>_Then, Ashley had to move. She started fidgeting and Helen knew that it was only seconds before Ashley would have to be up and moving again. __  
><em>_"Time to get out of bed, mum," Ashley stated and Helen sighed. __  
><em>_"And what if all I want to do is stay in here and cuddle with you?"__  
><em>_"Don't be silly, mummy. It's Christmas, we have to get up," her daughter paused for a moment, "Henry will be cross if we don't."__  
><em>_"Henry? Cross?" Helen asked with false astonishment, "Well then, my darling, we must get up. Wouldn't want a cross Henry, particularly on Christmas."__  
><em>_Helen squeezed her daughter tightly before releasing her. She sat up and stretched her arms above her head. She then reached for the robe at the end of her bed. Helen stood up and pulled it on. Ashley was standing by the door as Helen tightened and tied the sash around her waist. __  
><em>_"Come on, mum," Ashley urged as she sifted from one foot to the other, anxious to get down to the tree. __  
><em>_"Ashley, just give me a moment to make myself presentable," Helen chided as she moved to sit down at her dressing table. It was something she still had from when she was a young girl back in England and something she had cherished. She ran her hands loving across the surface. The table was ornately carved, and it was still beautiful, even after all these years. __  
><em>_She heard her daughter sigh, and turned her gaze on her in the mirror. She ran the brush through her hair, smiling as Ashley began to tap her foot. Her daughter was many things and had many good qualities; unfortunately patience was not one of them. __  
><em>_"Mum, you look beautiful. Now, let's go, please. Henry and Biggie will have started without us!" Ashley cried with an incredulous look on her face. __  
><em>_Ashley rushed to her side and pulled her hand impatiently. Indulging her daughter, Helen stood and was dragged out of her room, still in her robe. They took all the short cuts and when they finally reached the living room where Biggie and Henry waited, Ashley suddenly stopped.__  
><em>_Helen looked down at her daughter curiously, wondering what could possibly be keeping her from rushing into that room. That was until she saw her old friend's face. __  
><em>_"I wasn't supposed to wake you up," Ashley whispered and looked down at her bunny slippers in shame, "He said you needed sleep. That you'd been out looking for an Abnormal and hadn't slept in a few days." Helen shot him a glare at the last bit, Ashley didn't need to know that.__  
><em>_Biggie just grunted. __  
><em>_"It's alright, my darling. I was already awake when you opened the door," a little white lie wouldn't hurt her daughter, "now, let's open some presents. We'll have breakfast later, I'll cook."__  
><em>_Ashley up at her mother with a slight smile on her face, "Are you sure, mum? Remember what happened last time you tried to cook..."__  
><em>_"You cheeky monkey, and that was turkey. I'm sure I can manage pancakes."__  
><em>_They walked hand in hand into the living room and Henry started handing out presents. Helen smiled and thought about how lucky she was to have her family around her, even if it was a little ragtag._

* * *

><p>"Helen. Helen. Hel-en!"<p>

That snapped her back to the present. Nikola was in her office and trying to get her attention.

"What is it Nikola?"

He rolled his eyes; apparently he was irritated with the fact that he'd been relegated to the role of messenger.

"According to Cassie, the tree is now ready to be decorated. Though why it wasn't ready to be decorated once we got it on the stand is beyond me."

For the next hour and a half, the Sanctuary crew decorated the tree. It was a very fun event to take part in. Nikola and Cassie occasionally showed off by levitating the ornaments into place, with Nikola doing that with the metal ones.

When it came to the lights, Cassie said that she had a surprise. She motioned to Henry who brought in a strand of lights. Noticing these lights, Nikola exclaimed,

"Hey these are mine!"

Cassie said, with her back turned,

"Not really. Unlike *your* lights, these are actually safe to be around, and they won't explode. Henry fixed them."

She smiled at him her thanks. Henry tripped over the cords.

"Easy Wolf-boy. Let's see if you actually managed to "fix" them."

As Cassie levitated them around the tree, the tune _It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year_ began to play. Cassie kept at her work until the lyrics that spoke the most,

_There will be scary ghost stories and tales of the glories of Christmases long, long ago…_

* * *

><p><em>"I'm dreaming of a white Christmas with every Christmas card I write…" Cassie sang loudly to the ever grumpy Indiana Jones. She knew that if she annoyed him enough he would eventually give in to her request<em>

_Jones' grip tightened around the steering wheel. He was tempted to ask what it was she wanted. With her it was easy to tell when she wanted something. She did things like this…singing loudly and irritatingly until he caved in. Jones' turned to face her as the entered the Air Force base of Italy. He took the turn a little too sharply. Cassie glared at him before belting the following verses louder than before. _

"_What do you want?" Jones grumbled rolling his eyes as he parked the vehicle. _

"_I thought you'd never ask." Cassie teased looking proud with herself. _

"_Well I figured as you have the upper hand." Jones sighed staring at her as she exited the car._

"_Help me with decorating for Christmas." She stated not really asking._

"_No." Jones said shaking his head. _

"_If you don't I will follow you around singing every Christmas carol known to man." Cassie smiled daring him to argue with her._

"_Fine." Jones said getting out and walking toward his sleep quarters._

_Cassie laughed in victory and made her way to the Mess Hall. A part of her wished she was somewhere where there was snow. She entered the hall and smiled as some of the guys were serenading another carol she knew word for word. Jimmy who was a pilot wrapped his arm around her. _

"_C'mon Cassie you know this one." He said in attempts to get her to sing with them._

_Cassie laughed and wrapped her arm around him. "If I sing you have to help me and Indy with decorating for Christmas." _

_Jimmy stared at her. "You got Indy to volunteer to help you decorate?" _

_Ricky who was just a private snickered. "That will be a sight to see." Ricky said elbowing the man next to him; both started laughing. _

"_Well I am going to go get the décor." Cassie said amused with the small group. _

"_Then while we are decorating you will have to sing for us!" Jimmy said resting his arm on his arm on her shoulder._

"_Sounds like a deal." Cassie replied moving his hand off her shoulder and walked to go find the decorations._

_It had been an hour or so before she returned to the Mess Hall with two boxes of decorations. She looked around before spotting Jones sulking in a corner. He really could put a damper on things. She walked to him._

"_You said you would help." Cassie said dropping the boxes on his lap._

_Jones groaned. Did Cassie forget that she was super strong? He stared at her. "I can't if you break my legs."_

"_Are you whining about me putting boxes on your legs?" Cassie teased._

"_No." He mumbled struggling to lift the heavy boxes that the vampire made look so easy to do. _

_Jimmy snickered watching Indy bringing the boxes. "So she did recruit you."_

_Jones stared at him. "Yeah her rendition Christmas carols at the top of her lungs…yes very convincing."_

_The guys laughed as they started to decorate the tree that had been set up the day before. Ricky started to tell stories of his wife and kids back in the states. Jimmy chimed in correcting one story of a drunken Christmas night._

_Jones laughed a bit before telling his own adventurous Christmas story; the guys oh and ah-ed at his stories. Cassie rolled her eyes her adventures would blow his away but he was the only one other than those in higher command that had the knowledge of the minor detail that she was a vampire. She laughed as he spoke of falling into a snake pit._

"_It's not funny." Jones said glaring at her for being the first to laugh._

"_Oh but it is." Cassie said hanging up an ornament._

"_It is kinda funny." Ricky said looking at the star that would top the tree. "Who is putting the star on top?"_

"_I will." Both Cassie and Jones said together before eyeing each other._

_Lucas who was Jimmy's co-pilot smiled. "Why don't you two arm wrestle for it?"_

_Cassie smirked at Jones. "Sounds good to me; unless you are afraid of losing to a girl."_

"_Me, lose to you…" Jones laughed playing it cool. He knew he would lose and the boys would tease him. However if he said no he'd be a coward._

_Jimmy laughed. "Oh this should be good. So best two out of three okay." He said following the pair to the table._

_Jones nodded sitting across from Cassie. The two locked hands and steadied their elbow on the hard surface._

"_Ready….go" Jimmy said. _

_Cassie only used half her strength giving a struggle before planting Jones hand on the table. The guys laughed and mocked Jones. They reset for the second round; Cassie again didn't use her full strength. Jones kicked her under the table and the brief moment of pain allowed him to pin her hand. Cassie smiled when Jimmy hit the back of his head._

"_Didn't you father tell you to let the ladies win…" Jimmy fussed him teasing. "And you wonder why the women leave you."_

_Cassie smiled smugly as she took his hand again. This time she slammed his hand to the table. Jones sighed looking at her standing and walking back to the tree. The guys patted his back as if he had let her win._

"_That a boy Indy, you should have a woman in no time now." Jimmy encouraged teasingly._

_Cassie scuffed at the remark and happily picked up the star. She could have levitated it but decided not to scare the guys and climbed the ladder and placed the star on top. Cassie climbed down and gave thumbs up to Ricky to plug in the lights. They all gathered around the trees proud of their handy work._

_Time flew by and so did Christmas. Cassie had to admit it was fun spending Christmas with the boys. Now it was time to get ready for the mission. She hurried to the meeting area and took her place by Jones. It was the same plan that they had been briefed on the entire week. Cassie sighed and looked back at the boys behind her. Poor things had hangovers from the Christmas party last night. _

"_Psst..." Jones said in a hushed whisper drawing Cassie's attention back to him. "Thanks for getting me back into the Christmas spirit." He whispered to her._

_Cassie smiled. "And thank you Mr. Scrooge for helping." She whispered back teasingly._

* * *

><p>"Oi, Irish She-Devil, time to plug in the lights!"<p>

Cassie shook her head. She had to get herself back in the present before the others noticed, especially Nikola.

She flicked her hand to plug the lights into the wall. There was silence for a few moments while they waited to see if they'd work. After about a few minutes of silence, it was clear that they weren't going to blow up.

Without even turning around, Cassie said,

"Don't even think about taking credit for that, Nikola Tesla! That success was not yours."

Settling for giving her a dirty look, Nikola thought,

"_I'll get her for that later."_

"_You can try, Magneto."_

There was only one more ornament to put the tree, the star that would go on top of the tree. Will decided to be the one who would ask,

"So, who wants to do this?"

Helen, getting up from the couch, said,

"You all barely let me do anything. The least I can do is put the star on top. Nikola, would you help me please?"

"Always, moja ljubav."

While Nikola was helping Helen, Cassie decided to take a trip into his mind; she would need something to drink after this.

Noticing that Nikola's eyes were focused on Helen's behind, Cassie decided to fire a thought into his head,

"_Enjoying yourself, Nikola?"_

Startled by this sudden thought, Nikola shifted his hold on the ladder, causing it to fell, but right on top of Nikola.

Smirking, Cassie said,

"Nice landing you two. It could use a little work though."

Cassie winked at Kate. Part two was done. There were only two more parts to go.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter VII**

**A/N: Many thanks to 2BeautifulBrownEyes, Finding Light, and Haku2009 for all of their help!**

* * *

><p>"Come on Cassie, come and skate with us. You haven't been down there at all yet." Henry coaxed while holding out a pair of skates to her.<p>

All season Henry had been after her to come down to the large pond and ice skate with the group. She had politely turned down the invites, citing each time there were things that she had to do. Truth was she didn't know how to skate.

"I promise I'll stay with you, and I won't let you fall." Henry smiled sweetly at her.

"Oi, she-devil! Aren't you going to come out on the ice today?" Nikola called from where he was skating literal circles around Helen out on the ice.  
>Cassie shouted back, "You know, as fun as that would be, I think I'd rather watch."<p>

"That's probably for the best. I believe you have a lack of grace that is unbefitting our race," Nikola turned his focus back to bothering Helen, who just rolled her eyes and continued to skate.

Will was following along behind, stumbling a little on rough patches, "Magnus, wait up."

Henry stood up from where he had been tying up his skates, "Are you really going to let Vlad have the last word?"

Just then, Will hit another rough patch and slipped on the ice. Everyone laughed as Helen's protégé went bright red all the way to his hairline.  
>Cassie, figuring that everyone was distracted enough, leaned in close to Henry and whispered something in his ear she had never told anyone before.<br>"I don't know how."

Henry leant back with a bemused look on his face, "What?"  
>"I don't know how to skate," Cassie whispered and Henry dropped the skates he had been holding.<p>

"You don't know how to skate? Who doesn't know how to skate?" Henry asked and Cassie plopped down into the snow.

"I just don't, okay? I never wanted to learn how to skate, so I didn't." Little did Cassie know that Nikola and Helen were skating close to them, and, naturally, Nikola overheard.

"Oh, that's why! Helen, Cassandra here doesn't know how to skate. Another thing that I am infinitely better than you at," Nikola smirked and pulled Helen along with him. Helen glanced back at Cassie, giving her a sympathetic look.

Cassie narrowed her eyes at him. Oh, it was _on_. If he thought that Cassie would just take that sitting down, boy was he wrong. She snatched the skates from where Henry had dropped them earlier and shoved them viciously on to her feet. Henry watched as Cassie almost broke the laces as she violently tightened and tied them.

"Get me out onto that ice," she ground out through her teeth.

Henry led her down to the ice, careful to keep her with arms reach in case she fell over. Cautiously, Cassie stepped onto the ice, Henry following behind. When her feet slid out from underneath her, he wrapped a steadying hand around her waist. Cassie smiled at him in thanks and he removed his hands.

Nikola skated by quickly, knocking Cassie off balance and into Henry.  
>"I'm sorry, Henry."<p>

Henry chuckled, "Don't worry about it. We'll just have to avoid Vlad from now on." He grabbed her hand and slowly started to skate.

For the next half an hour, Henry taught her how to skate, and gradually she started to get it. Yes, there were quite a few tumbles – her butt would hurt the next day- and Nikola kept making jabs at her, but she had resisted acting on her malevolent thoughts.

"Do remember before I got you out onto the ice? When I promised not to let you fall? Well, that might have been easier said than done," Henry confessed as Cassie picked herself up off the ice for the umpteenth time.

Nikola slid to a stop, "Oh, would you look at her, Helen. Doesn't she look like a newborn calf? All limbs and awkward angles."

"Don't you dare bring me into this, Nikola," Helen scolded as she skated past the three of them, refusing to get involved in their petty feud.

"It's not my fault that she is fuel for such mockery," Nikola skated after Helen, and Cassie couldn't contain it any longer. She'd had enough, and it all happened so quickly. Her eyes flashed black. Not that anyone noticed.

"Helen, do you-" Helen turned to face Nikola at the sound of his voice, Nikola skated up close to Helen, and Cassie knocked Nikola's legs out from underneath him.

As Nikola fell forward, he fell into Helen's arms. Helen was taken completely unawares by the sudden armful of Nikola, and they started to fall backwards. Nikola managed to wrap his arms around Helen and get a hand between Helen's head and the ice. Silence fell as they hit the ice. Nikola and Helen just stared at each other for a minute.

Will stared at his boss and nemesis, who were still lying on the ice, and broke the silence, "That's been happening a lot recently..."

Helen looked away from Nikola, and at Cassie pointedly, "Yes, it has."

Cassie quickly realized that she had been smirking at the scene. Of course it was too late to change her expression, as Helen had already noticed her barely concealed glee. She thought,

"_Crap. Helen's onto me. Or if she isn't she's definitely getting suspicious. May have to back off for a day or two._"

* * *

><p>This seemed to signal that the ice skating was over. As Cassie finished taking off the skates and put her boots back on, she noticed that Nikola was nowhere in her sight. That wasn't a good thing. Shortly after realizing this, a snowball crashed into the back of her head.<p>

Growling, Cassie whirled around to see who had done that, only to get a snowball in the face. After that, she saw an all too familiar figure getting ready to launch another snowball at her. It was Nikola.

"What the hell was that for?"

"_That_ was for knocking my legs out from under me!"

She dodged the third snowball, hiding behind a pillar. Cassie shouted,

"Oh like you were complaining about the landing!"

She'd managed to get some good snowballs together, but then noticed that just above where Nikola was standing was a block of snow, which she filed away for later.

Cassie took aim at Nikola and let it fly. But what she didn't expect was Will to bump into her at the last second, breaking her concentration and knocking the snowball off course, and into the back of Helen's head.

Helen, who had been talking with Henry about the Sanctuary mainframe, gasped and froze in shock and disbelief. Henry's eyes widened comically, and Cassie would've laughed, except that she was petrified. She quickly gathered her senses and moved out of the line of fire.

Helen spun around and Nikola had a smug grin on his face- he had been expecting Cassie to get reprimanded- and Helen saw that as an admission of guilt. She narrowed her eyes and advanced on Nikola. Slowly the grin fell from his face as he realized that Helen was coming for him, not Cassie.

"Nikola" Helen growled, and advanced further, getting closer with each step. Nikola thought that she looked like a cat stalking its prey, and he liked it. _A lot_.

Nikola started inching away, hoping to put some distance between him and Helen. He backed up to where Will was standing and bumped into him. Nikola raised his hands in surrender, but as Helen threw the snowball, he ducked and it hit Will right in the face.

Helen tried to smother her giggles unsuccessfully as the young shrink fumed and bristled as the snow slid under his jacket.

"Oh Will, I'm sorry. I wasn't aiming for you," Helen trailed off as Will grabbed a handful of snow.

"Now William, put that down, No, don't you even think about-"Helen spluttered as a snowball hit her in the chest.

"Doctor Zimmerman!" Helen cried indignantly as she wiped snow from her chest and narrowed her eyes again, this time her ire was directed at Will.

Cassie watched as Helen switched into her "battle" mode. She grinned widely when she caught the tail end of Helen's thoughts. Will was a dead man walking. It was on!

A full scale battle broke out as snowball started flying in every direction. Cassie was proud that she had started this- not that she'd ever tell Helen- and that everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves.

Helen hadn't been hit with a snowball in years, Cassie had seen, and she wanted to make up for all of the lost time. Cassie grabbed a big handful of snow and started after the rest of the Sanctuary staff.

It was turning into a free for all. Everyone was trying to pelt everyone else with snowballs while trying to avoid getting hit themselves. Chaos was ensuing. Nikola seemed more concerned with getting at Helen than the others. Will, Henry, and Kate were having a mini war all on their own.

After they'd been at it for quite some time, Cassie noticed that Nikola was standing where he'd been when he'd first started throwing the snowballs at her. And that _very_ conveniently located block of snow was still there.

Smirking evilly, Cassie used her telekinesis to cause that block of snow to lose its grip on the roof. A few seconds later, Tesla was covered in a pile of snow that came up to his waist.

This got several people's attention. Everyone was shifting around as much as possible, as they were all soaked.

After a few more minutes of shifting around in the cold, Helen said,

"I seem to remember that there was a winter storm advisory out for the area. And it will be rolling in a little over an hour. Let's get inside and batten down the hatches. Also everyone change into warm, dry clothing."

Once they were on their way back in Nikola said to Cassie,

"That's the second time in a short time period where you made me look the fool. I'm going to get you for that, in a way that will surprise you."

Cassie just smiled and ignored him.

* * *

><p>Cassie couldn't be happier. With the decorations done and holiday spirit finally in the air everything was going perfectly. Even Helen was all smiles, well as much as Helen ever smiled anyways. The whole Sanctuary seemed alive as the holiday fast approached. Cassie had to admit her favorite part so far had been the mistletoe kisses. She had placed them strategically around to get as many mistletoe kisses as possible. Many had left her eyes filled to the brim with tears at the sheer awkwardness of them.<p>

Now the members of the Sanctuary kept a careful eye on the ceiling and no longer walked in pairs to avoid them. Cassie didn't need to however as she knew exactly where each and everyone was located. She would never believe that she would be caught under one. Apparently Nikola had other plans.

She and Henry were on their way to Helen's office to meet with the rest of the team. Apparently an abnormal decided to take up residency in the local YMCA and did not like others entering its new nest.

Opening the door about to step inside Nikola blocked their path to get in.

Cassie crossed her arms in annoyance glaring at the older vampire. "What are you doing?"

Nikola's smile just grew wider as he spoke two little words, "Look up."

Cassie and Henry followed his gaze up to the top of the door frame. Sitting right in the middle hanging down was a small little plant decorated with a bright red bow. Her eyes grew wide.

"I didn't put one here," she almost shouted.

Nikola chuckled. "No, but _I _did." He stepped back enjoying the sight. "You know the rules."

Cassie opened up her mouth to protest or _something_but she knew she couldn't instead she clamped her mouth shut turning to Henry. Henry this whole time was having an internal freak out. His heart racing, his mouth suddenly dry. He had never felt this nervous about anything. Cassie locked eyes with him finding her heart skipping a beat. She tried to keep calm. It was just a kiss. Right?

Cassie was just going to give him a quick peck but when their lips met she felt herself slowly melting into him. She hadn't been kissed like this in a long, long time. Henry's eyes closed as he leaned in letting his tongue dart out to taste her. Cassie sighed giving in completely as all thoughts left her head.

The only reason they parted was the need for air bringing them back to the world. Henry flushed at the realization of what just happened and Cassie well she just didn't know what to think.

Nikola cleared his throat getting their attention.

"Well now wasn't this an interesting turn of events." His eyes sparkled, a Cheshire cat smile plastered on his face.

Cassie narrowed her eyes at the Serbian vampire and told him to go do some _very _specific things in his mother tongue.

Nikola replied in kind using the same language.

Kate turned to Henry, who still a little shocked and said to him,

"I don't know what either of them said, but it sounded negative."

* * *

><p>After they got by from picking up the creature that had taken up residence in the local YMCA, everyone, including the two vampires wanted nothing more than a long, hot, shower. The creature, which turned out to be a rather large, <em>carnivorous<em>, abnormal, decided that the three that it deemed to be the biggest threat to its dominance needed to be eaten in order to protect its own domain, had not been cooperative. Those biggest threats happened to be Nikola, Cassie, and Henry.

So while the three of them were hightailing it all over the place; Helen, Will, and Kate set up a trap for the critter. Mercifully Cassie, Henry, and Nikola were unharmed once they captured the creature.

Shortly after everyone finished up their showers, they peeled off into their own little groups or by themselves. Kate found Cassie meandering her way to the hangar. Smirking, she said,

"Don't think you're going to get away without explaining that kiss with Hank. You looked like you enjoyed it. A lot."

Cassie gave her a look which could've melted titanium. Kate ignored it. Cassie turned the conversation back to their little Christmas op.

"How do you think we're doing with getting Helen and Tesla together?"

"Hm. I don't know. Though we've made some progress, I don't think we've gotten it through Helen's thick skull."

Kate noticed that Cassie had an evil grin on her face, one akin to Tesla's when he was about to cause trouble.

"What did you just come up with?"

"It's a plan that will end the mucking about once and for all. It's going to be done on Christmas Eve night and into early Christmas Day morning."

At that, they began to plot. It was going to be epic. It was going to be the grand finale. They hoped it would work, if it didn't, they'd both be in serious, deep trouble. And cleaning several _very_ unpleasant Abnormal enclosures for quite some time.

* * *

><p><strong>AN 2: This is the third week. Next chapter, things will start to get _interesting_. Also could my readers please participate in a poll on my profile page? Thank you!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter VIII**

**A/N: Many thanks to FindingLight and 2BeautifulBrownEyes who helped bring this chapter to life. This is the last Christmas chapter. I think you all know what is going to happen. Enjoy! Sparky She-Demon**

* * *

><p>Helen rolled over again, burying her face in her pillows, hoping that this time she could sleep.<p>

"Urgh," she groaned into her pillows a few minutes later. Her brain just wouldn't shut off. Helen had been tossing and turning for over an hour and had not gotten any closer to sleep. She blamed Kate and Cassie for her lack of sleep. She wondered how they would feel about cleaning out the Seroslug enclosure.

Helen's head was clouded with the past. She supposed she could blame this on the Christmas season too, but if it wasn't for Cassie and Kate, she doubted that Nikola would be so prominent. She wasn't stupid, obviously contrary to popular belief; she could see what they had been doing for the past three weeks.

Her thoughts started to stray back to Nikola, again, but this time her thoughts were centered on the good old days back at Oxford, before John, and before the Source Blood. Back when it was just the two of them. It had been so easy then; there was none of this pressure that had been there for the last few years, but during the past couple of days it had been like Oxford. Nikola had been like the shy, young, Serbian she had met all of those years ago, minus the accent.

Helen flopped back onto her back and stared at the canopy above her.

She conjured up the image in her mind of the both of them: The Nikola she knew now and the Nikola of the past and saw both the similarities and the differences. The Nikola from Oxford was much softer. He hadn't yet seen the horrors of the world, and without the Source Blood he probably would've remained that way. She came into his life and was when everything had been set in motion.

Now she came up to the modern day Nikola. He was so arrogant, selfish, reckless, and let's not forget snarky. Nikola was fuelled by his own agenda, and up to a year or so ago, it took precedence over everything else. He had changed in sixty years.

One benefit of the modern day Nikola: no mustache.

She heard noises that broke her from her musings. It sounded like someone struggling outside of her door. There was a muffled "no" and the sound of someone hitting the wall, before the door opened- Helen could have sworn that she had locked it- and Nikola was thrown inside. There was a click of Helen's door being locked and a scraping sound before the room descended into total and absolute silence... which was broken seconds later.

* * *

><p>"Bloody hell, Nikola," she cried in indignation as she shot up, "What are you doing in my bedroom?"<p>

"Ask the she-devils who ambushed me in my own bedroom! Does it look like I'm here willingly?" He raised his hands which were bound in a bright red bow.

Helen narrowed her eyes at him, not sure if she believed him. She flicked on the bedside lamp, illuminating the room further and saw that along with his hands, Nikola's feet were also tied. He hopped forward, looking very silly as he did so.

"A little help?" He asked and Helen just stared at him, "Come on Helen."

She looked at him; standing near her door all tied up, seemingly against his will, and watched as he lost his balance and fell over.

"Oh Nikola," she chuckled at their predicament. Helen got up and put on her short robe to cover up her pine green negligee, realizing that maybe it wasn't the best form of nightwear while she had a libidinous _male _vampire running around her house. She should have guessed that he would end up in here at some point at put the more revealing things away.

She kneeled down in front of his slumped position on the floor, righted him, and started worked on the bow.

"What was it you said to me?" she looks at him thoughtfully, "Ah, right.'I've often wondered what this would be like. Me... You tied up.'"

Slowly she revealed the titanium webbing hidden underneath the bright red ribbon. Helen raised an eyebrow at the 'vampire-proof' cuffs and sighed. There would be no removing those, she knew that she should've kept a key in her bedroom... or not. Helen then turned her attention to the second bow that kept his feet bound. She quickly undid that and was relieved to find no titanium webbing.

Suddenly something was slid underneath the door. Helen shared a glance with Nikola before she moved over to the object in question. She picked something up and it jingled. Helen chuckled when she read the tag attached.

"'Merry Christmas'," she read to Nikola, "'from Cassie and Kate."

Helen unlocked the titanium webbing cuffs and Nikola rubbed his wrists, "Oh when I get my hands on those little... she-demons, they are going to regret messing with Nikola Tesla."

Helen rolled her eyes, "Alright Nikola, get out." She gestured towards the door.

He took a step towards her, his eyes tracing over every curve of her body with relish. Nikola noticed that she was barefoot and he could see a lot of leg coming out from that little green negligee. He finished his scan and met her eyes. He was looking at her wolfishly.

"Are you sure Helen?" he grinned lasciviously at her, "We could have a lot of fun."

"Get going," she said, trying to ignore the feeling deep in her stomach,

He sighed and with his hand on the door knob said, "You know, Helen-" he stopped.

"Nikola?" she asked, wondering what was going on.

He jiggled the door handle and pulled to no avail. Nikola turned back to Helen with wide eyes, while she raised her eyebrow.

"I can't open it," he frowned at the handle accusingly.

"Out of the way," Helen said as she stepped up to the door. She pulled at it, but with the same result as Nikola. He gave her an 'I told you so' look.

"Don't be smug," she told him in response to the grin that had spread across his face, "Are they still out there?"

"Yes, they are," Nikola informed her and she knocked on the door.

"Cassie, Kate," she started, "Let us out."

There was no response, "Nikola, are you sure that they're out there?"

"Yes I can hear Booty breathing, and I can assure you that when I get out of here," Nikola growled, "that might not be the case for long."

"Don't even try to get out of the room! There is no escape," Cassie called from the other side of the door.

Nikola gave her another 'I told you so' look and Helen was starting to get annoyed with it.

"Well, there is the window," she murmured to Nikola and he snorted.

"Yes Helen," Nikola conceded, "I don't know about you, but I certainly don't want to jump out a fifth story window, it would ruin my silk pajamas."

Her eyes roved over the black silk that covered his body before she could stop them. "Bloody hell..." she thought.

Cassie and Kate cackled evilly before Kate said, "Guess you've got to share until we let you out."

"Share, what on earth could they want us to share? No, never mind, don't answer that," she muttered to Nikola who gave her a wide smile.

"Cassandra, Kate," Helen's voice was calm and deadly as she glared at the door, "if you do not let us out right now, I promise that both of you will be cleaning out the Seroslug habitat for the next two months." Her threat was met with silence.

"Oh Helen, I do love it when you go dominant," Nikola whispered in her ear (when had he got so close?), "It's so hot."

Helen toyed with slapping him for that one, but then realized that if he liked her dominant, it wouldn't help the situation. He'd probably like it. Plus, all of this wasn't helping Helen ignore that feeling...

"_Oh I have to get him out soon. If he doesn't leave, I can't be responsible for my actions,"_ she found herself thinking, and started, wondering where that had come from. _"My libido, that's where."_

Helen rolled her eyes again and shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts before they went somewhere she didn't want them to go while Nikola was still in the room. Almost as if he was reading her thoughts, Nikola gave her a smirk that made her knees weak.

"Hey Doc," Cassie sang through the door, "Look up." And she did, regretting it almost instantly.

Hanging above them was a sprig of mistletoe, when it was hung there, Helen had no idea. It looked so innocent, so innocuous, but it was about to unleash something that had been pent up for a good many years. The green leaves and the stark white berries would be a catalyst to something, and once that particular genie was out of the bottle; there was no putting it back.

"How about it, Helen?" he asked her and leaned close. Nikola's eyes were dark with long repressed desire and his voice had already taken on some vampiric undertones, which made her shiver.

"Well, I'm not one to break tradition," and she reached up and pulled him down for a kiss.

Cassie and Kate turned to each other and grinned, their work was done.

"Final Phase, complete!" they said in stereo as they high-fived each other.

* * *

><p>Christmas Morning 0900<p>

Cassie and Kate woke up the following morning, tired but pleased. Their plan had succeeded. Helen and Tesla had probably spent the rest of the night making up for lost time.

On their way down to the living area where the tree was, Kate asked Cassie,

"What do you think they're doing right about now?"

"Honestly? I hope they're sleeping. _Really_ sleeping. Vampires may have a lot of… energy, but even *we* need our sleep from time to time."

They continued their trip to the living room, where Henry, Will, and Big Guy were already waiting. Upon noticing their arrival Will said,

"Nice to see you two finally dragging yourselves out of bed. Now all we have to wait for is Tesla and Doctor Magnus. Normally they're both up at the crack of dawn."

Cassie and Kate exchanged a look, their minds immediately making the connection to the bad pun that Will had just unknowingly made and rolling their eyes. Cassie said to Will,

"If you're so worried about her, why don't you go get her, William?"

Will hated when he was called that. Usually it was only the people that came from Victorian England that did that.

Will sighed as he was volunteered to go retrieve Helen. He rolled his eyes as he knocked on the door. Looking around the hall Will sighed as there was no reply. After knocking again and again receiving no reply yet again Will decided to open the crack the door open. The door seemed to be stuck as Will jiggled the handle. He used more force this time causing the door to open wider than he had wanted. Horror struck him as he saw Helen's back and the outline of Nikola beneath her.

"Aw Come On!" He shouted shutting the door quickly.

Henry's eyes widened as he heard Will letting loose a string of lovely four letter words. He looked to Kate and Cassie who were unable to contain the fit of giggles they broke into.

"Well they're certainly not sleeping." Kate laughed grabbing to the Big Guy's arm to steady herself.

"What do you think he saw?" Cassie asked smiling as Will came down the stairs.

"You two are…ugh…bad." The Big Guy said shaking his head.

Will looked pissed as he stared at the two girls laughing. "There is a very special elevator in hell for you two." He scoffed feeling more than embarrassed and queasy.

Henry smiled. "I can so totally go get you a barf bag bro." He offered before thanking his lucky stars that it had been Will and not him.

Will held his stomach and shook his head.

"Can't be that bad." Kate teased still laughing at Will.

Will bit his tongue before hearing Helen and Nikola coming down the stairs, "I hate you both." He whispered to the girls.

* * *

><p>Helen kept her eyes on the floor feeling not embarrassed but sorry for Will. Nikola was too proud of himself which didn't help matters. Nikola smiled smugly at Will.<p>

"So…" Nikola started before Helen elbowed him sharply in the ribs. "Sorry you had to see that." Nikola grumbled half-heartedly.

Helen looked at Will apologetically. "Will I am really sorry."

Helen then noticed that Cassie and Kate were barely containing their giggles. Obviously it had been them who'd suggested that Will be the one to go and get her from her room and bring her downstairs.

"I suppose that you two had everything to do with this?"

Deciding that she should be the one to fall on the grenade if it blew up in their faces, Cassie said,

"It was my idea in the first place Dr. Magnus. If there's going to be any negative fallout, heap it all on me."

Helen, though pleased that Cassie was taking full responsibility for their actions as a whole, still said,

"That is honorable, but you are both still guilty."

While Helen was talking with the girls, Will asked,

"So are you two the ones that hid Tesla's shirts in my filing cabinet?"

Henry's grew wide and averted them in the hopes that it would go unnoticed that he had been a part of the plan to get Vlad and the Doc together. Helen's head tilted towards him as she noticed the change in the expression on the HAP's face.

"Henry…" Helen said, conveying her disappointment in him.

"I didn't know what the end game was!" Henry said indignantly.

Deciding that getting these three's chestnuts out of the fire was worth it, Nikola cut in, with a slightly evil grin

"Helen my dear, did you not enjoy your Christmas present that came to your room already wrapped and cuffed?"

At that, Henry yelped,

"Dude that is way too much information!"

All Will did was hold his stomach and his face turned green. Big Guy just rolled his eyes. What Kate, Cassie, and to an extent Henry had done was simply speed up the inevitable.

* * *

><p>As everything calmed down, everyone got to open their gifts. It was mostly uneventful. Will got from Big Guy a new filing system. Not being able to help herself, Kate said,<p>

"You may want to make sure you don't get any shirts in that!"

Will decided that ignoring Kate was probably the best policy. He was trying to un-see the images that he'd gotten earlier that morning.

Will found another gift that had his name on it and shook it. It made a rattling sound. He opened the wrapping and tons of rubber snakes exploded out of it.

Narrowing his eyes, Will looked at the two vampires who were giving nothing away. It had to be one or possibly both of them that had done the gag gift.

Kate opened up her Secret Santa gift next. She squeaked with happiness as she pulled out a rather large gun.

Cassie noted it saying,

"Pretty nice Desert Eagle. Chrome plating too. This one your idea Doctor Magnus?"

All Helen did was give that Mona Lisa smile of hers. It was taken as a big yes.

Then Cassie levitated her gift to Helen from under the tree to her lap. Helen looked at her quizzically.

"I thought you already got me my gift." Nikola smirked quite madly. Helen privately wondered whether he had been in on the whole thing or not.

"This gift is the "Please-don't-throw-me out-of-the-Sanctuary-for-what-I-did" gift. It's a little piece of history that I've had for a while, and I figured that you would appreciate it." Cassie actually looked a little nervous.

"What is it?"

"Open it up and see."

Rolling her eyes at that, Helen opened the gift. After a slight widening of her eyes, Helen asked,

"Where did you get this Cassie?"

"I got it shortly after the end of the war in Europe. They didn't need it anymore, and since I had helped… _procure_ it for the Allies, the Poles thought I should have it."

"What *is* it?" asked Kate.

Helen replied,

"It's an Enigma machine that was used for codes and code breaking during the Second World War. And let's see…" Helen appeared to check the top, counting the number of rotors on the device, "It has four rotors."

Will then asked,

"What does that mean?"

Nikola interrupted,

"What that means Wilhelm is that this Enigma machine was made to be used by the German Navy on U-Boats."

Cassie also put in, directed at Will,

"What do they teach you in your US history class these days anyway?"

Stopping a fight before it could start, Helen said,

"Thank you Cassie for this. I never thought I would see one of these again outside of a museum."

"You're welcome, Doctor Magnus."

* * *

><p>It was late in the afternoon and all of the gifts had been given…except one. Henry had given Cassie one of those pre-made gift sets but it wasn't her real gift from him. Looking at his watch he sighed; he didn't want to steal her away while she was talking to Kate. Henry waited a few more minutes till Kate finally walked off. Henry walked to Cassie practicing his speech in his head.<p>

"Ummm…can I steal you for a moment?" Henry asked looking at his feet.

"Sure, I guess." Cassie said puzzled as to why he wouldn't look at her.

"Would you walk outside with me?" Henry asked this time looking up at her for a moment.

Cassie nodded and gestured for him to lead the way. Henry took a deep breath as he and Cassie walk toward the door. All eyes in the room were on him and he felt overwhelmed. He would admit that he was not as smooth with girls as Vlad was but at least he tried. Opening the door he allowed Cassie to walk out first; he followed closing the door.

Henry placed his hand on Cassie's back for brief moment. "This way." He said pulling his hand away and walked towards the frozen pond.

Cassie looked at Henry giving him a strange look, but followed.

"I know you don't know how to skate…but I though these might help." He said grabbing a rather wide box from the bench and handing them to her.

Cassie smiled and opened the box revealing a pair of double bladed skates. "Thank you Henry, but I still don't-"

"I know." Henry said quickly feeling proud of himself for what he was going to do. "I'd like to teach you."

Cassie looked at Henry before nodding. "Okay." She said sitting down on the bench where Henry's skates were.

Joining her; Henry sat and instructed the proper way to secure the skates. When Cassie finished Henry helped her up and allowed her to adjust to the skates. He took her hand and helped her on to the ice.

"So skating is really like walking except you drag your feet." Henry said. "Do you mind if I-"

Cassie wanted to laugh at how nervous he was but contained herself. "It's okay Henry."

He blushed slightly as he put his arm around her waist and slowly stepped forward on the ice. Cassie followed moving her foot forward. The shifting weight caused the pair to fall. Henry laughed helping her up.

"Hold on to my hands." Henry said smiling at her. Henry felt something as her hands locked with his. He looked away before skating backwards with her.

Helen watched the pair from one of the Sanctuary windows. It was so cute to watch Henry trying to teach her how to skate.

"She is like a fish on land." Nikola teased wrapping his arms around Helen.

Helen smiled and looked at him. "Much like you were before I taught you. Remember?"

Henry smiled as Cassie started to get the hang of it now. His arm was again around her waist as the skated across the ice. Henry let go of her waist then her hand. Cassie smiled she was doing it on her own.

* * *

><p><strong>AN 2: And with that, the conclusion of the Christmas chapters. I promised established Teslen, and here I give it to you. It may take me awhile, but I always follow through on my promises. **


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter IX**

**A/N: Many thanks to Haku2009 for beta-ing and writing and 2BeautifulBrownEyes for some writing help. Italics denote telepathy. Bold indicates a phone conversation. There is also consentual blood drinking. Enjoy the chapter! Sparky She-Demon**

* * *

><p>"Ah, hello there, Dr. Magnus. What can we do for you?"<p>

"Henry, isn't it? How nice to see you. Where is Helen?"

"Um, the Doc is somewhere... I don't exactly know where, but she's busy right now... Perhaps I could get you settled into a room and something to eat before we go and bother her."

_'Ha,_' Henry thought, _'that'll give her some time to... straighten up. I'll just have to send someone to tell them.'_

"Henry, I must see Helen, it's of grave importance. The room can wait; I need to see my daughter now." And with that, he took off. Henry was surprised that a 182 year old man was so spry, and then the panic set in.  
><em>'CASSIE,' <em>he mentally screamed, trying to gain the attention of their resident telepathic vampire.  
><em>'Henry is everything alright?'<em> she responded soon after.  
><em>'No, the Doc's dad is on the hunt for her...'<em>  
><em>'And she's with Nikola,' <em>she finished. _'Oh, shit! Okay, I'll send a call to Will; he'll meet you at the elevator.'  
>'Hurry, we have to think of something. Maybe you should go warn the Doc,'<em> Henry said and he could almost feel her scoff.  
><em>'Oh, sure. Give me the mentally scarring job.'<em>  
><em>'You made this happen; you have to help fix this. And as unwilling as I am to admit it, I need Nikola's help with the project I'm working on, and he can't do that if he's dead.'<em>  
><em>'I'm sure you're just over reacting. Besides, he's a vampire. He can't die, at least not easily.'<em>

_'If there is one man who can find your weakness, its Gregory Magnus.'_

Speaking of Gregory, the good doctor was stepping into the elevator and Will was waiting inside.

"Doctor Magnus, good to see you back. Are you planning on staying long? Because if you are, we have some Merotters that I'm sure you would be interested in. Would you like to see them now?"

Gregory gave Will a look that reminded Henry of one Magnus often gave Will when he was being particularly annoying. Henry had to agree, he was kind of rambling.

Gregory pressed the button for the floor that the Doc's office was on.

_'What do I do?' _Henry thought at Cassie and he got a quick response. _ 'Stall.'_  
>Henry looked around him searching for something and then it hit him. He started tapping away at his ever-present tablet, going around his mainframe and finding the right command for what he had in mind.<p>

Suddenly all the lights of the elevator panel lit up. Gregory didn't flinch, but Will looked at Henry with and incredulous look on his face. Henry sent him a half grin and started tapping at his tablet, trying to appear busy fixing the problem.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, Cassie was running to Helen's office. She was wary of going in there as she didn't know what she would find. Well, she knew what she would find; she just didn't want to see it...<p>

She was now lurking outside of the Doc's office, tuning their thoughts out. She did not want to be privy to that sort of information. It would just be creepy. Setting them up was one thing, hearing those thoughts was another.

Cassie took a deep breath and knocked. There was no response from behind the large oak door. Oh, she couldn't deal with this right now. She knocked louder, and then she tried a telepathic little _'Hello'._ Again there was no response, telepathic or otherwise.

Finally she gave up and threw open the heavy wooden door. Her ears went a little pink when her eyes fell on the pair that where occupying the room. There was a gasp and a cry of something that sounded like a few choice words in Serbian, Cassie sighed and directed her eyes towards the ceiling.

"I hate to interrupt you guys but you have a guest, Doc. Your Dad is on his way up here. I don't know how much longer the boys can hold him off."

_'Cassie, we need your help,'_Cassie heard Will's mental call, and without another word to the Doc she rushed out of the room and took off towards the elevator bank.

Henry, Will, and Gregory rode out the extra stops in silence and when the doors opened with a ding, there was a dark haired, dark eyed vampire waiting for them. She flashed the occupants of the car a wide smile and she zeroed in on Gregory.

The smile faltered slightly as Cassie realized that he knew something was up, but how could he not. Henry and Will needed to take some acting classes...

"It's alright boys, I can take him from here," she said as she shook her head. If she hadn't gotten here, Gregory would have given Henry and Will the slip and just headed straight to the Doc's office.

Cassie had been keeping a mental ear on Helen and Nikola, and once she heard that they were decent, she lead Gregory down the hallway to Helen's office and knocked on the still open door.

"Come in," came the steady voice of the British woman inside.

Inside the office, there was no trace of what had been happening just minutes earlier. The occupants were impeccable, with no sign of the earlier romp, except for Nikola's shirt being buttoned up incorrectly in their hurry. Cassie doubted anyone without keen observation skills like James Watson would notice, but she shouldn't have counted on that.

Cassie knew the instant the gig was up, and it was pretty soon after they entered the office. They hadn't even had time for the usual pleasantries, before the good doctor figured it out. Of course, he didn't show it. His Victorian sensibilities were too ingrained.

She flounced over to the couch, settling in for the long haul, not wanting to miss a second of this spectacle. Cassie saw Gregory raise an eyebrow at that before turning all his attention back to Helen and Nikola.

"Hello sweetheart, how I have missed you," he said and Helen stood, walked around the desk and grasped his hands. He pressed a light kiss to her forehead.

"Father, I have missed you as well, but what are you doing here?" Helen asked, but Gregory ignored her question, turning his intense, searching gaze on Nikola.

"Nikola Tesla, it has been quite a long time since I have seen you. I hear you have been keeping busy," their eyes were locked in a silent battle of wills and Nikola looked away to glance at Helen briefly before responding.

"Yes, well you know me... being the master of electricity takes up quite a bit of one's time," Nikola shrugged nonchalantly and reached over for the glass of wine that Cassie had only just noticed.

Helen shot him a glare that only Cassie caught, and gestured for her father to take a seat, before asking, "Tea?

He shook his head, before facing Nikola and studying him with a raised brow. Then, rather out of the blue, he said, "What are your intentions towards my daughter?"

"What on Earth do you mean?" Helen gasped and she flushed slightly.

Gregory turned to Helen with his eyebrow still raised and used his new cane to point at Nikola's incorrectly buttoned shirt. The jig was most definitely up. Helen blushed; she seemed to be doing a lot of that lately.

"I don't believe that this is any of your business," Helen said in the calmest and collected tone she could manage, but Nikola interrupted before she could say anything else.

"I love her, and will stay with her until she wishes otherwise. Perhaps even longer than that."

Helen gaped like a fish out of water as her eyes flew between her father and Nikola. There was a brief silence where no one could think of anything to say, and Helen struggled to find her words before turning to her father in full "Helen Magnus" mode.

"I am 274 years old, father. I will not be treated like a child. I am a grown woman and I shall choose who I love, not you. I can be with whomever I please. You have no say in that, at least not anymore."

Helen was obviously affronted at her father's behavior; Cassie didn't need to be able to read her mind to know that. She just wished she had some popcorn or something, this was better than that daytime soap opera she had been forced to watch with Kate after losing a bet.

"Though you can't really blame him, cara mia, you don't exactly have the best track record," Nikola said, smirking slightly at the disgruntled look on Helen's face.

She glared at him, her eyes narrowing with ill-concealed malice.

"Well it's about damn time," Gregory cried, startling them all, before turning to face Cassie who hadn't moved from her seat on the couch. "Now, who is this?"

"This is Cassandra Flanagan, the newest member of my staff," Helen said, quickly regaining her calm facade, even though her mind was plagued with tumultuous thoughts.

"And what is your gift, my dear?" Gregory asked as his eyes assessed Cassie, looking for any obvious Abnormalities, of which there were none currently visible.

"Why do you think I have one?" she asked a slightly cocky smile on her face.

"For one, you didn't flee," he said in all seriousness, "so you have to be quite indestructible. Most would quake in fear at an angry Helen Magnus, you didn't even flinch."

Seeing he was genuinely curious, she glanced at Helen who gave her an almost imperceptible nod. Cassie rolled her neck and Vamped out, smiling through all her teeth at the look of undisguised curiosity and joy on Gregory's face. She briefly played with a fingernail before transforming back. Gregory nodded at her and turned to Helen.

"I believed earlier you asked why I was here. I come with grave news." Helen visually braced herself; waiting for the blow she knew must be coming since her father was the harbinger of those words. "Sweetheart, it's the Cabal. They're back."

Helen's face turned ashen. Everyone in the room (Henry and Will had arrived) immediately flashed through their memories of fighting the Cabal, three years previously. Unfortunately, Cassie was dragged into Helen's mental replay.

The room started spinning around Cassie. Flashes of a familiar looking blonde woman rushed through her head. She saw her smile sweetly, her blue eyes full of joy and curiosity, and she saw a small blonde child running through the corridors of the Sanctuary. The flashes got progressively darker. Suddenly she was fighting with a tall bald man (who looked eerily familiar but Cassie couldn't place immediately), then Nikola. She watched as Will shot her. Cassie saw the blonde woman destroying everything Helen cared for, and then she finally attacked Old City. Cassie watched in horror as she saw the blonde woman get ready to attack her, and then the memories stopped, overcome by emotions.

The grief and an almost physical pain rolled over her. Cassie couldn't take it, the pain was too much. Things started to fade in and out of focus. It was too much of an effort to hold on, but she still fought for consciousness.

"GET OUT OF MY HEAD!" Cassie screamed and then the room went black.

* * *

><p>Cassie woke up about ten minutes later in the infirmary. Moaning slightly, she thought, '<em>Oww, what did I hit my head on? The last thing I remember was… Get away from there now!'<em>

Unfortunately, Helen was still in the infirmary waiting for her to wake up. Noticing the look in Cassie's eyes she asked, "I dragged you into my mind didn't I?"

Not feeling like answering verbally, Cassie just nodded. She then asked, "How much longer do you need to keep me here?"

"Long enough to make sure that you won't black out again."

Once Helen was done with that, Cassie bolted, probably to either her room or to the hangar.

Shortly after Cassie left the infirmary, Gregory came in. Noticing that the vampire had left, he started, "She's a telepath, isn't she?"

Figuring that her father would probably find out anyway, Helen answered,

"Yes. She's a telepath. She also has telekinesis, along with all the usual bells and whistles of being part vampire."

"How strong is her telepathy?"

"Very. She can do just about whatever she wants with it. But she seems to have occasional trouble whenever people are experiencing strong emotions. The strong emotions appear to be able to drag her in, and she experiences them along with the person who is actually going through the emotions."

"So that is what caused her to faint?"

"Yes, father."

They got back to business.

Figuring that Cassie would be in the hangar after her little episode, Henry went out to find her. He was thinking that maybe going out for dinner would be a nice thing to do, since she actually liked eating regular food.

Once he got there, Henry noticed that Cassie was in her flight gear. She was getting ready for flight. Deciding that he needed to get to the point quickly, he asked,

"Want to go someplace away from here to eat? I know that I get tired of the food here even though it's good."

Cassie looked at him curiously, but got back to business of doing a preflight check.

"I really don't feel like socializing right now."

Henry decided to go a little further.

"You've mentioned that you like hot wings. And you like them really hot. There's this challenge at Buffalo Wild Wings where you have to eat six of their wings in their hottest sauce in five minutes or less."

That quickly got Cassie's attention. Henry always seemed to know just how to distract her. She gave him a smile.

Seeing that she was warming to the idea, Henry continued,

"They also have this trivia game called Buzztime Trivia. Tonight's questions are history themed. You probably would own everyone on those questions."

Cassie was thinking it over. She did like hot wings. And she was really starting to like being around Henry for purely social reasons.

"Give me a few minutes to get changed out of the gear. Let's go to town."

About five minutes later, Cassie was out of the flight gear and in regular clothing, but still wearing her leather flying jacket.

"What are you waiting for Henry? Let's get the show on the road."

* * *

><p>"Do you think that it was a good idea? Getting them together," she said at Cassie's confused look. They were walking towards the kitchen, on their way to get snacks. They turned a corner, now only a few hallways away and Kate spoke again.<p>

"I mean, they hardly ever leave the bedroom –except for food, and then it's normally right back in there. Don't think that I'm complaining about the down time we're getting, but it's actually a bit weird without all the staff meetings."

"And no offence to Will, but as boring as they normally are, his attempts are worse."

They both chuckled at that and continued down the hall towards the kitchen. They were silent for a few moments before Cassie realized that Kate was staring at her with a curious look on her face. When she realized that Cassie had spotted her staring, Kate grinned wickedly, and the vampire groaned internally.

"So... are female vampires every bit as horny as the males?"

Cassie's eyes widened, but was saved from (though she'd use that lightly) answering that question as she pushed open the heavy oak door to the kitchen. Cassie and Kate stood there, shocked into stillness and silence. If only Cassie had been paying attention, she could have spared them this entire potentially embarrassing situation.

Dr. Magnus was naked except for her killer heels and her bra, but the straps had been sliced, while Nikola was only in his dress shirt – all the buttons were torn off. Nikola had his face in her neck and Cassie and thought he was just sucking on it until she smelled the blood.  
>Cassie stiffened as she felt the pressure of her teeth trying to come out, as well as her fingernails trying to grow. She fought to keep her nails under control, but was not so successful with her teeth. She kept her mouth clamped shut and struggled to keep from fully vamping out. It had been a while since she had drank human blood, and she found that adjusting to the medicine wasn't as easy as Helen had made it seem. Clenching her fists tightly and rolling her neck, Cassie realized that her internal struggle had lasted only a few moments.<p>

She saw Nikola tense and clutch Helen closer to him. Cassie recognized this as something she had done when she had been interrupted during feeding – it had only happened twice early on. She had gotten the hang of it since then. It was something primal and she knew that rationality in that state would be nearly impossible. He would protect what was deemed as 'his' against other predators, namely her.

She grimaced and saw Kate start at what she could feel were her pointed teeth. Ignoring that, she sent Nikola a brief mental message, something along the lines of 'calm down, we're leaving. Go back to your sexy times.' Cassie then turned to Kate, who was still a bit red from walking in on her boss like that, and lightly shoved her out the door, closing it solidly behind her.  
>Kate stood awkwardly outside the door, staring at Cassie with wide eyes.<p>

"I think I may agree with you."

Kate just stared at her. Cassie's voice was deeper than it normally was. Not as deep as it would have been mere moments ago, but it was still noticeable. After a few seconds, Kate let out a choked 'what?'

Cassie smiled humorlessly at her. "I'm thinking that because of us the others might end up in the same situation we were just in." She was quite for a second, thinking back to what had happened in the kitchen. "You know, I don't even think the Doc noticed that we were there."

Kate deadpanned, "I think she was a little bit absorbed."

They both stood there in horror as a strangled moan came from within. They quickly moved a few feet further down the hall. Kate dissolved into giggles.

"Oh, God! I am never eating food from that kitchen again."  
>"That means you'll be eating a lot of take out." Cassie smiled as she caught onto Kate's train of thought.<br>"That's fine, more burgers for me. Speaking of burgers, you want one? I think I'll send Hank out on a dinner run."

Cassie chuckled as the rapidly walked away from the kitchen, both of them casting wary glances over their shoulders. Kate turned down the hallway that would lead back to where an episode of some bad reality television show was waiting for them. Cassie stopped at the intersection, waiting for Kate to realize that she was talking to no one.

"-and I thought that maybe later we could have a marathon of that show Hank likes. You know the one with the giant ring thing? And – hey! Where are you going?" She spun on Cassie, glaring at her.

"I've got to make a detour. You head back, but don't start without me!" Cassie called over her shoulder as she turned and walked quickly walked towards the hangar. Cassie needed the medication and she needed it now.

* * *

><p>A few days later it was New Year's Eve. Cassie had been going out of her way to avoid Helen andor Tesla. It wasn't as easy as it sounded. They were actually interacting with the rest of the group. Kate didn't mention the kitchen incident and neither did Cassie. They were doing their best to cast it from their minds.  
>Finding and catching Abnormals had actually been fairly quiet for the past week with pretty much no activity whatsoever. Until today.<p>

"We got us a job to do," Henry called as he rushed into the hangar a little out of breath.  
>"Did you run all the way over here? You could have just sent me a message," Cassie chuckled as he tried to catch his breath.<br>Henry blushed, "Shut up, I forgot. Just- suit up and meet me at the van in ten. I'll go find Tesla."  
>"Uhm, Henry... you should let me do that."<br>"What? Why?"  
>"Because I don't actually have to find him to find him." She tapped her head. "Go and get ready." She hoped to spare him what she and Kate had gone through.<br>"Alright," he said as he ran back out the door.

Ten minutes later, she was waiting at the van with Henry for Nikola to finish getting ready. They were just finishing loading up when Nikola sauntered in, "I'm here. Let's get this over with. I want to be home before dinner."  
>"Took you long enough," Henry grumbled as he slammed the back doors closed.<br>"Why must I come?" Nikola asked as they got in the car. Cassie was driving, with Henry navigating in the passenger seat. Nikola was left to climb into the back of the van. He moodily threw open the doors Henry had just closed and climbed inside.  
>"Well, the Yaoguai is tricky. It is fast, it's strong, and the Doc's files say something about low grade telepathy."<br>"I repeat: why do I have to come? You have Cassie; she's got all that you need. Speed, strength, and something else that I don't have: telepathy. Why drag me along?"

When they reached the gate, she turned around in her seat and glared at Nikola. "Surely you can go a few hours without being around Helen?"  
>Nikola huffed, actually huffed, and pouted a bit. "Yes, I can. I just don't want to. And it was a perfectly reasonable question. What about Dr. Expendable, or Booty? Even the Walking Carpet could have come along."<p>

"Will is in London, helping Declan with some Abnormals, and Kate and Biggie are doing rounds today. Also, Magnus has been kinda distracted lately. Thought it might do her some good getting you out of her hair for a bit." Henry said, not looking up from his tablet. Nikola glared at the back of his seat, but remained silent.  
>"Take a right here." He said a few blocks later.<br>Cassie looked at him, "Where are we headed, Henry?"  
>"The Old City Greenhouses. The Yaoguai's natural habitat is tropical, according to the Doc's notes. It would be looking for a place to imitate that environment."<p>

He shrugged, and gave a small smile, "And a witness saw it go inside the largest of them. Called the cops, but I intervened. I got us priority on this."  
>A few more turns and bending of certain traffic laws and they are pulling into the deserted parking lot of the Old City Greenhouses.<p>

Magnus' file on the Yaoguai said that it is an elusive Abnormal. _Elusive_ was an understatement. They couldn't find the creature by any normal means. Henry couldn't smell it, it hid better than Will when he had paperwork, and they couldn't find any tracks. Cassie had to resort to following its telepathic signature. Even then, they stumbled upon it due to pure luck.

It was a giant lizard. Cassie thought it looked a bit like a dragon. It was mottled mud brown and deep green. She briefly wondered if it was like a chameleon, and could change what it looked like, but she was distracted by its claws. They were huge. Not as sharp as hers and Nikola's, but probably sharp nonetheless. After taking note of all that, she finally realized something more important than its claws.  
>Cassie's eyes widened and she whispered, "Henry, this thing is seven feet long! Did you bring a big enough cage?"<p>

"I think so!" he whispered back. He actually didn't think so.  
>As Henry raised his stunner, he stepped on a twig. The resulting <em>CRACK <em>caused everyone to jump, including the Yaoguai. It was immediately up, and it took off. How a thing of that size could move so fast...  
>The cornered it again a few minutes later. After establishing that stunners had no effect, except make it angry, Henry switched to a tranq gun. The darts had the same effect as the stunners.<p>

"See, this is why I miss having the Doc on missions!" Henry muttered, as he switched an empty magazine for a full one.  
>Cassie tossed her stunner, and pulled out her tranq gun. "What do you mean?"<br>"At this point she would be explaining why the stunners aren't working and the darts are bouncing right off."  
>Nikola sidled up to them, "Well, it seems to have extra thick epidermis. I mean, where there aren't scales."<br>"And?"  
>"That means it's going to take more than this," he gestured to the stunner and tranq gun, "to take it down. Unless you start getting original real quick, pup."<br>"Why don't you do it?"  
>"Bit busy," he called over his shoulder as he took off after the Yaoguai, who had taken their distraction as means to escape and was now heading away from them.<p>

Henry started pacing, trampling a flowerbed, but he didn't seem to notice. Cassie hoped that they weren't any sort of endangered species.  
>The Yaoguai are telepathic! She had found it using telepathy; maybe she could..."Henry! I have an idea!"<br>Henry stopped running his hands through his hair and gave her a hope filled look, "What is it?"  
>"I think I can keep it calm."<br>"For how long?" Henry asked excitedly.  
>Cassie shrugged, "Long enough to get it into a cage and ready for transport."<br>Nikola had lost the Yaoguai again, and was now searching for it. Cassie whistled at him and headed in the opposite direction that he was going. She found it at the base of a tree. Henry came a minute later, following Nikola.  
>"It worked? It looks so calm. This thing had the temper of a Hungarian Horntail before!"<br>Cassie cocked an eyebrow and turned towards him, "Really? Harry Potter, right now?"  
>"There's always time for Harry Potter," Henry called back to her. Suddenly the Yaoguai rushed Henry and knocked him into a particularly prickly-looking bush.<p>

Cassie laughed and focused on keeping it calm. She'd lost her focus for a second and had attacked. It was very aggressive. Cassie frowned; she didn't think it was in its nature to be aggressive. It seemed pretty docile. Cassie looked it over, checking for any sign of injury when she gasped, realization slamming over her.  
>"You got him, I see." Nikola said as he walked up to Cassie.<br>"Her, I got her."  
>Nikola raised an eyebrow, "How do you know that? There are no distinguishing markers or anything to really tell which gender it is."<br>"She's pregnant. It would explain the aggression."

"Let's get her packed up and ready to go. You are still keeping her calm, Cassie?" Henry asked and she nodded, not looking away from the pregnant Yaoguai.

"And that only took us forty-five minutes. That was easy," Nikola said as he followed Henry. They were trying to figure out some way to get the Abnormal back to the Sanctuary. The cage had been too small.

But the way Nikola said that made Cassie think. It had been easy, much too easy. For being such an elusive and high value Abnormal, this had been too simple. Something was off about it. There should have been competition.  
>At this point, she had completely lost focus, but the Yaoguai was still there. It hadn't moved, except to curl in on itself. Cassie leaned closer, lightly running her fingers over its scales, hoping to soothe the obviously distressed creature. That's when it happened.<p>

They were everywhere. Men in black cloaks descended from the glass ceiling, came in through doors, and crawled out of bushes. Cassie stood quickly, ready to fight, but a needle was plunged into her neck. She saw the same happen to Nikola and Henry. There was no escape.  
>She felt her body get heavy, her eyelids as well. Cassie's brain started to muddle. As she dropped to the floor, she quickly sent a message off to Sally. It had to make it. It was their only hope. Cassie just hoped that they would hurry.<p>

* * *

><p>Helen was nervous. It wasn't like Henry to miss a checkup, much less two of them in a row. Unless the abnormal was proving to be particularly difficult, there was no good reason that they hadn't yet called in. Henry had called in when they'd arrived at the Greenhouses. He hadn't called back yet.<p>

She was just about to call them herself when Big Guy walked. He said,

"Sally has been acting strange for about an hour. We've been trying to calm her down without you, but it doesn't seem to be working."

Grateful for something to distract her from the lack of check ins, Helen followed her old friend down to the telepathic mermaid's habitat.

Upon her arrival, Helen could tell that her friend hadn't been kidding. Sally was swimming laps around her tank. At top speed for her. She looked to her father asking,

"What do you think would be causing this?"

"I was walking by her tank when she put her hand to the side of her head. It could be something she sent or received telepathically."

Noticing that Helen had arrived, Sally had stopped her frantic swimming. Putting her hand on the glass, she asked her,

"What happened?"

Sally shook her head transmitting,

"_No Helen. This is not something for you. The message was sent with Kate in mind."_

Motioning to Kate, Helen said,

"She wants to talk to you."

Curious, since the mermaid had never asked for her before, Kate asked,

"Why does she want to talk to me?"

"She said the message was for you."

Shrugging her shoulders, Kate went up to the tank and put her hand on the other side glass from Sally's. She asked aloud,

"Who is it from?"

"_It is from Cassandra. It is only a short burst of information."_

Knowing that the Doc was worried about the lack of contact from the retrieval team, said,

"It's from Cassie."

Breathing a sigh relief, Helen asked,

"What was the message that couldn't be told during a check in?"

Kate looked back to Sally, who had an expression approaching sadness on her face.

"_Kate, this may be painful. It is very violent."_

"I'm ready."

Sally then transmitted the short burst of information. Kate staggered away from the habitat, breathing heavily. What she had seen was playing in her mind constantly.

Helen rushed over asking,

"Kate are you alright, what was it?"

Taking a deep breath as she gathered her thoughts, she said,

"I'm going to be fine. I'm not so sure about Cassie, Vlad, and Hank."

"What do you mean?"

"They got the Abnormal just fine. Only took them about 45 minutes to catch it. But once they got it into the cage for transport… things went south and went south fast."

Her face paling, Helen asked,

"How bad is it?"

"It looks like some redone Keepers of the Dead got the drop on all of them. Cassie was able to get off the short burst of info before going completely off grid telepathically. The others were going down about the same time she did."

Doing her best to keep her composure, Helen said,

"We need to get to that Greenhouse. See if there's any information."

Once they got to the Greenhouses, they immediately began to search for any sign of their friends or the abnormal. After about 90 minutes of searching, Kate found one of the Sanctuary's transport cages with a reptilian head sticking out of it. It was the abnormal. Calling Helen on the walkie, she said,

"Doctor Magnus, I found the abnormal."

Mercifully, Helen was not that far away and made it there in record time. By then, Kate had found Henry's tablet with a cracked screen a few feet away.

"Found this too Doc. Whoever took them was moving quickly."

After a few more moments, during which Big Guy had caught up with them, Kate asked,

"Not to demean Hank or anything, but he'd have been the easiest to get the drop on in the group. One shot of a good sedative would have him down for the count. But how the hell did they get the drop on, much less subdue, both Vlad _and_ Cassie?"

"I don't know."

Helen's phone then began to ring, picking up she barked,

"Magnus"

"**Doctor Magnus. So nice to hear you again."**

Helen's face paled. It was Dana Whitcomb. She put her phone on speaker so both Kate and Big Guy could hear both sides of the conversation.

"The yaoguai was just bait wasn't it?"

"**Yes. It was decided that even though it's a rare Abnormal, nothing beats having a matched set of vampires."**

"Why did you take Henry?"

"**Your Class 9 HAP was taken along because we couldn't have any witnesses. Don't worry there is plenty in store for him."**

Barely keeping the tears from her voice, she asked,

"What do you want this time?"

On the other end of the line, Dana laughed,

"**Doctor Magnus, there is nothing you have, not even the entire Sanctuary network, that could match the worth of two vampires. Goodbye Doctor."**

At the loud click, there was complete and total silence. Helen was trying to keep the tears from her eyes, but wasn't doing particularly well. The Cabal was back. And they had taken people that she loved away from her, again.

* * *

><p><strong>AN 2: Boy this was a ride of a chapter! *runs behind a barrier to prepare to the barrage*. **


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter X**

**A/N: This chapter is a filler chapter. Many thanks to FindingLight. Enjoy the chapter. She-Demon**

* * *

><p>The past month and a half (roughly) had been horrible. Three vital members of Helen's home team had been kidnapped by the newly resurrected Cabal, and she had no idea where they were.<p>

Those three kidnap victims were more than just team members; they were family.

She had practically raised Henry. Helen knew that she was functionally Henry's mother. God only knew what was being done to him, since he was a Class 9 HAP. But in that phone call, she'd found out that he hadn't been the main target.

_Blood. There was blood everywhere. Every place he looked was covered in it. He was inside the Old City Sanctuary, yet he wasn't. Very few people in the Sanctuary could survive losing that much blood, and those that could, would be down for a very long time. _

_He had to find his friends. And find them quickly to make sure that they weren't hurt._

_Henry made his way through the building, each room he passed more gruesome than the last. He then came to the last room. What saw was a terror to behold. _

_The room had suddenly changed. All of his friends were being tortured, and he could do nothing about it. He fought the urge to go HAP on the torturers, but in the back of his mind, he knew it was unwise. Suddenly the room shifted again, this time in a stainless steel cage reinforced with titanium. _

Henry noticed a young man standing near his cage, who was snickering. The young man then said,

"Don't like the taste of your own medicine do ya? That's what it is like to lose your home."

* * *

><p>Then there was Cassie. She'd had a <em>very<em> good reason for staying under the radar for as long as she had. Cassie had wanted to avoid being captured and experimented on again. Choosing to be on the side of the Sanctuary had caused that to happen again. Helen felt guilty for asking her to be more than just a guest in the Sanctuary. Upon her agreeing to go on missions and take an active role on her team, Helen knew it was putting a target on Cassie's back again.

_Cold water hit her lungs. She began coughing into the water. Cassie was pulled out again by her captors. _

_She continued coughing, trying to get the water out of her lungs. She may not be able to die, but she could still drown and then wake up while still under water. It had happened to her before this torment she was suffering right now. _

_Hands were now under arms and were moving her towards a cage. Cassie couldn't fight them; it was as if all of her strength had been sapped from her. _

_When Cassie saw where she was being led to, she began to fight her captors as much as she could, to make it as difficult as possible. Unfortunately, her captors were stronger than her at the moment. _

_She was being led to a cage with a chair bolted to it. After she was secured to the chair and was locked into the cage, Cassie felt the cage being lifted into the air. Noticing that she was above a rather deep pool which appeared to be an Olympic size pool, her eyes went wide with fear. Determined to conceal her fear with defiance, she said,_

"_I'm not a witch and this isn't 1692 Boston."_

_The man in charge just laughed. He wasn't fooled by her bravado. _

"_We are well aware that it isn't 1692 Boston. We did get our inspiration from the form of torture known as dunking. But we'll be using something that they didn't have back then."_

_Cassie noticed that they were carrying an electric cord; she then saw that it was a live current. Beginning to struggle immediately, the cage was immediately dropped into the pool, with the live current coursing through the water and into her._

* * *

><p>And it would figure, just when she'd come to her senses about Nikola, he would get kidnapped as well. How had she been so blind to him for so long? Now, he was kidnapped, and who knows where.<p>

Nikola sat in the geomagnetic electric chair; his heart was racing. These people obviously did their homework on vampires. He laid his head back and looked at the ceiling there was only thing in his mind other than 'I am going to die' and that was Helen. He heard the door open and smiled. He was not a loyal person and often it showed; however, he would never truly hurt Helen or offer her secrets up to save his life.

"Mr. Tesla, I am Dana Whitcomb and this is my associate." The woman said pointing the man in a white lab coat. "We are going to run some tests on you." Dana informed him with her cynical smile.

"Do I get a nice glass of wine afterwards or sucker?" Nikola asked smugly as he straightened up in his seat.

Dana smiled and nodded to her associate who proceeded to turn the chair on. Nikola braced himself as the first jolt went through him. He closed his as the pain flooded his body. Nikola growled as he forced himself to vamp up. The current stopped, and Nikola leaned back in the chair trying to catch his breath.

Dana chuckled and leaned in towards the vampire. "I like you; you remind me of a strong willed girl I played with once." Dana paused and pulled away. "What was her name…oh it was Ashley."

Nikola jerked at the restraints; he would kill her if he got loose and he would enjoy it. Nikola didn't have much time to linger on the thought as the current hit him again this time it was worse. To be honest, it was the worst pain he had ever felt. He closed his eyes as a cry of pain left his body.

"_Helen where are we going?" Nikola asked as the blonde pulled his hand._

"_You will see." Helen said smiling. _

_Nikola followed trying his best not to get snow all over him. He didn't mind the cold so much right now; mainly because of Helen. He smiled; he would follow her where ever she led him. The frozen pond came into view._

Nikola groaned fighting at the restraints. He needed to get free. He needed…

_She was so close to him, holding his waist as she guided him across the ice. Nikola looked back at her briefly before tripping and falling with her. Helen laughed and smiled as she landed on the young man. Nikola stared into her blue eyes._

Nikola growled as the pain lingered in his joints. His heart was racing, and his breathing was in shorts spurts. She was enjoying this; he could tell. The sizzling from the chair stopped and Dana smiled.

"Where are the New Sanctuaries?" Dana asked looking at Nikola who slumped forward trying to breathe.

"What New Sanctuaries?" Nikola asked in an arrogant manner. The 'New Sanctuaries' were far from new; he knew it but they did not.

Dana smiled as the sizzling started again. Nikola jerked as the new level of currency hit him. He would die before he sold Helen out; he would die for the only woman he ever truly loved.

_Nikola stood at the docks. The Titanic had sunk, and Helen had been on it. He cursed James for being so stupid and letting her travel alone. Nikola paced the docks back and forth waiting. His heart filled with worry and pain. _

"_Nikola." Her voice broke through his thoughts._

_He turned towards her voice. That heaviness he felt melted away, and he ran to her. His arms pulled her close._

Nikola opened his eyes; the pain was too much. He now jerked from the spasms of his muscles and not in the intent to break free.

"Are you ready to talk?" Dana asked walking a circle around him.

"I'd rather not…" Nikola panted. He forced himself upright again. "I'd rather die…"

Dana smirked. "When I'm done with you, death will be a blessing."

The geomagnetic wave of energy flooded Nikola. His body twitched and jerked violently as the current passed through his blood.

_Helen stood looking over her balcony. Nikola couldn't help himself as drank in her beauty. The sun danced in her auburn hair, and kissed her fair skin. He felt jealous of the sun's light for being so close to her. She was angry at him. He couldn't blame her either; he had foolishly risked her life. The cut on her neck was a reminded that she almost died because of him._

_He stood from his seat and slowly walked towards her. "Helen, I am…"_

_Helen turned to face him and sighed. "It's fine Nikola, I'm fine."_

_Nikola touched her shoulder, "I would never have put you in danger like this on purpose."_

_Helen sighed and nodded her head. Her hand covered his, and she lowered it from her shoulder. She didn't let go of his hand, only moved it so she could turn and watch the sunset. Nikola smiled slightly as he saw the perfect chance to stand too close and hold her. His free hand snaked around her waist; he was shocked when she didn't pull away. His heart stopped beating as she leaned back against him._

Nikola screamed Helen's name as he felt the electricity leap through him. His vision was blurry, and the room seemed to slant at an angle. Dana looked at Nikola.

"Well so you do have a loyal allegiance with someone other than yourself…how sweet." Dana chuckled. "Again." She ordered.

Nikola could no longer move of his own free will as the deadly current ripped inside of him. Nikola's eyes closed and his world went black.

"_Nikola, I need you." Helen was in a red sundress her hands reaching out for him. "Come Niko, come hide away with me." _

_Nikola smiled as he walked to her. Taking her hands in his, he placed them around his neck; then let his fall to her waist. Nikola leaned down and kissed her with all the passion in his soul. _

* * *

><p>Cassie and Nikola had been the main targets. Somehow, the Cabal had found out about Cassie. She shuddered at the thought of what was in store for them.<p>

Helen sat in her lab as she drew her final vial of blood. She would soon have the answers as to what was making her so ill. Will ordered her to do this or else he would invoke that damned article again. Helen rolled her eyes as she walked to the diagnostic machine and place the vials into it and returned to her desk.

She picked up her tablet which was running a decoding process on a few files she was able to obtain. She was so tired lately and the stress she had been under made it impossible to keep anything down. The machine beeped a few moments later. She walked to the machine eyes focused on the tablet. She looked up briefly; the tablet fell to the floor as the diagnosis read pregnant.

Helen shook her head. No this wasn't right, she couldn't be; she was too old. Helen grabbed another set of vials and redrew some more blood and reran the test. Helen paced back and forth till the machine notified that it was done. Helen felt weak as the results were the same. Tears formed in her eyes as her heart shattered.

She sat down and buried her face in her hands. This was not happening to her; she had already raised on child on her own and she failed at protecting her...how could she raise and protect another? Helen felt hot tears streaming down her cheeks. She couldn't be pregnant; she couldn't do this alone. She needed Nikola here with her.

Biggie walked into her lab. Helen was hunched over; it was not common to see her like this, but the sight was that could not be mistaken. His dear friend was crying, he could count on one hand the times he had seen her cry. He walked to her, kneeling in front of her.

"Magnus...ugh...what is...ugh wrong?" He asked taking her tiny hands in his.

Helen looked up at Biggie tears still falling. "I'm...I'm pregnant." Biggie's grip tightened around her hand. "I can't do this alone. I need Nikola here. I can't raise another child alone..."

"You...ugh...not alone..." Biggie said encouragingly. "We...ugh...will find them."

Helen leaned into her old friend and hugged him. She could not fight back the tears as she thought of her life. She had just allowed herself to feel again and now she could lose him just like she lost James and John. The fact she was pregnant scared her even more. She could not lose another child. She cried even harder. Henry was gone too. She had raised him and cared for him; she loved him like her own child.

Biggie pulled away and offered her his hand. "You...ugh...need rest." He said and sighed in relief as she agreed.

Helen allowed herself to lean on him as he helped her to her room.

* * *

><p><strong>AN 2: Fast worker isn't he? **


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter XI**

**A/N: Thank you for your help FindingLight. Thanks to DevilsDuchess as well. Now you will find out who was cloned!**

* * *

><p>James followed the men that were leading him to his cell. The corridors merged one into another. He could see the tiny details that everyone else missed. He was stopped as a group of men walked a man in a purple jumpsuit out. That hair that face, those eyes….<p>

* * *

><p><em>1878<em>

_James walked through the halls going to his next lecture. There was a man sitting in his usual seat. James was not one to make a big deal about things like that. James took the seat next to him. "I'm James," he said looking at the man profiling him.  
>"I'm Nikola," the Serb said.<br>1888  
>James watched Nikola watching Helen. They both loved the only woman neither of them could have. James saw the things Nikola did to try and impress Helen. It was sad to say, but James knew the pain. He to had tried to impress Helen, but when compared to John, he also was nothing more than a shadow.<br>1941  
>"Nikola this is quite brilliant!" James said, looking at the machine that wirelessly transmitted messages.<br>"I know," the vampire said. His accent had faded some from when they first met.  
>James spotted the plane ticket and passport. "Where are you going?"<br>Nikola smiled but said nothing.  
>1994<br>Ashley screamed as she ran from Henry who chased her with a spider around the London Sanctuary. James could hear the footsteps as they came racing towards his office.  
>"Uncle James!" Ashley screamed as she burst into his office. "Save me,"<br>James pulled the small girl into his arms, waiting for Henry who followed shortly. James smiled. "Henry, you are aware that that spider is poisonous?"  
>Henry's eyes widened and looked down. "Ppppoisonous?"<br>James nodded. "Slowly put it in the jar, and it won't bite you." He instructed.  
>Early 2008<br>James knocked on a door; he was not surprised to see the familiar vampire, however the feeling was not mutual.  
>"James?"<br>"Hello, Nikola, we need to talk." James said.  
>Nikola allowed the man in and closed the door. "How did you find me? More importantly, why?"<br>James sighed. "I am afraid I need your help Nikola." The vampire raised his eyebrows. "I believe that my time is coming to an end soon."  
>"I can fix your machine," Nikola offered. He did always get along with James but he knew that the other man would do the same for him.<br>"No, this is no way to live, more robot than man. I have lived a good life," James said looking at his old friend.  
>"Then why did you come here for help?" Nikola asked, puzzled.<br>"You loved her then, and you love her still. She needs to be protected from herself." James looked into the blue eyes of the Serbian. "She is getting into something she can't handle."  
>Nikola nodded. "The Cabal, I know."<br>"Please protect her." James said.  
>"Always, you know that." Nikola replied.<em>

* * *

><p>Present Day<p>

For the first time in a long time, as near as Henry could tell, he had full possession of his senses. The last thing he could remember was that shortly after getting ahold of the Yaoguai, was having a needle shoved into his neck. Everything that had happened after that was fuzzy at best.

After breaking out of the cage he was in, which wasn't as easy as the other time he'd been captured by the Cabal, he found some purple jumpsuits in a nearby closet. Picking the one that seemed to be closest to his sizes, he put it on. Soon after that was over with, he left the room he'd been in, and went to look for his friends.

Her mind was clear.

Cassie opened her eyes and took in the room around her. It was clear of anything she could use to get out of this hellhole.

She felt her telepathy and telekinesis return to her like old friends that she hadn't seen in a long time.

Cassie began to use her telekinesis to try and unlock the mechanism that held her hands and feet to the chair she was in. She knew that if she tried to get out by using her brute vampire strength, it would set off an alarm of some sort.

After what seemed like a lifetime, but was probably only a matter of minutes, the locking mechanisms were loose. Getting out of the chair immediately, Cassie finally checked to see if she was actually wearing anything.

She was wearing a purple jumpsuit. It looked familiar.

"_Oh yeah, now I remember why this color on a jumpsuit looks familiar. The uniform color in the old Soviet internment camps was purple. This is probably Soviet surplus from WW II. It certainly smells like it's from WW II."  
><em>Now that she was loose, Cassie had to go and find her fellow captives, first Henry, and then Tesla. Once they were together, they'd make a break for it.

Nikola slowly came to his senses as he was walked further down the narrow hallways. He thought he saw James, though was sure it was a hallucination. He felt the strength in him building. Nikola tripped, landing on his knees. One of the guards that he had referred to earlier as "Shaggy" knelt down next to him. Nikola hit him in the neck, knocking the guard out, the other guard went to attack, but Nikola blocked and hit him. Nikola moved swiftly and disarmed the guard and grabbed the keys.  
>Nikola had to admit that he was a little off, but then again he was not at full strength. Nikola pulled the two guards into the cell that they were bringing him to and locked them in. Nikola proceeded down the hallway, taking a right then a left. He remembered a security cubicle he had passed up when they walked him to the torture room. He knew if he could get in there he could easily find the others and get free. Nikola smiled as he approached the poorly guarded security booth. Nikola vamped out as he prepared for a fight.<br>Nikola stared in confusion as James turned to face him. The security guards were already lying on the floor, incapacitated.  
>"Good, you're here," James said moving away from the control panel. "I was never up to par with your computer skills," James admitted as Nikola cautiously stepped next to him and started to hack into the Cabal's systems.<br>"How are you here?" Nikola asked as he began to overwrite security protocols.  
>"What do you mean?" James asked him a bit puzzled.<br>"I saw you die! I was there when they buried you!" Nikola said as the computer offered its secrets to him.

James then said,

"I'm dead?"

Without looking up from the computer, Nikola continued.

"You died shortly after we found the source blood in Bahlassam. The technology that was keeping you alive failed."

"If I'm supposed to be dead, then how am I here?"

Nikola didn't answer him right away. He was busy hacking into the files where the information about where the others were located. Once he found them, he noticed that the other two's cells weren't that far from where he was.

"Tesla, is that you?"

Nikola whirred around, ready for a fight. It was Henry and Cassie. Cassie had been the one that spoke, because Henry had noticed Watson and was speechless. Answering Cassie,

"Of course, it's me. Who else would it be?"

Cassie noticing that Henry was still looking at the man standing next to Tesla with a look of disbelief on his face, decided to give him a good smack upside the head to bring him back into Earth orbit.

"Oi, Henry. Back to Earth."

Rubbing the back of his head, Henry asked, while pointing at James,

"Cassie, do you know who this is?"

Noticing James for the first time since she'd arrived, Cassie replied,

"I haven't had the pleasure just yet. First, we need to get out and away from here. Then we can have time for more formal introductions other than our names. Cassie Flanagan."

"Doctor James Watson."

Cassie nodded her acknowledgement, but then went back to talking with Tesla. They needed to find a way out.

* * *

><p>Once the group found a way out of the facility (after a lot of hacking by both Henry and Tesla), they were on their way out.<p>

On the way, the group passed by a window that showed an airstrip. Stopping at the window, Cassie noticed that there was an airplane on the runway, being serviced. She grinned crookedly.

Noticing that she'd stopped by the window, Nikola said,

"What are you waiting for, Cassie? We need to keep moving to get out of here."

Cassie smiled.

"I just found our ride out of here. We just need to get to that airfield."

Looking towards where Cassie was pointing, Tesla saw the airplane.

"Think you can fly that crate, Irish She-Devil?"

"It appears to be a de Havilland Twin Otter. Obviously, a souped up Twin Otter, but the basic design is the same."

"Can. You. Fly. It?"

"Yes, I can. Just get me to that plane, and then I can get us all the hell out of here."

Once they got through a rather large service duct and outside, Henry began shivering.

"Dang, it's cold. Where do you think we are?"

"Don't know Henry. We'll figure that out once we steal that airplane. There's bound to be a map somewhere on it," Cassie responded.

Unfortunately, there was a man-made lake between them and the airfield.

"Oh great. We're going to get even colder than we already are," grumbled Henry. "We're going to get soaked."

Nikola said,

"Quit your whining, Wolf-boy. Get ready to swim."

* * *

><p>As the other three were getting ready to swim across, Cassie hadn't moved a muscle. Noticing this, Henry asked,<p>

"Cassie, come on. We need to swim across."

Cassie didn't seem to even hear them. She appeared to be completely frozen with…

"_Is it fear? But what does she have to be afraid of?" _was Henry's thought.

Tesla also had noticed her motionlessness. He said,

"Come on, She-Devil. Get in the water."

Cassie began shaking her head.

"It won't bite, and besides, we need to get to that airplane so _you _can fly it."

Nikola moved to shove Cassie into the water, before she yelped,

"I can't swim!"

_That_ piece of news got everyone's attention rather quickly.

Henry said,

"Seriously? You've been alive, for what, 200 years…"

Cassie shot back,

"I'm 142 years old, Henry."

Henry gave her a look that basically said, "Close enough" then continued with,

"Whatever. You still can't swim?"

"It…it… it just… never came up."

"You must have one heck of a to-do list!" Henry replied.

"Well, I did have all the time in the world to learn!"

"You are scared of water?"

Cassie turned towards the other vampire, whose expressions were vacillating between disgust, disdain, and surprise.

"You are a member of the Sanguine Vampiris abnormal race, or one of the two closest approximations left on Earth. You have all of the abilities that come along with it, plus telepathy and telekinesis…"

James cut in,

"I hate to interrupt, but we are trying to escape. We need to figure out a solution to get her across."

Henry said,

"I can carry a double load; I'm a strong enough swimmer."

Making a quick decision, Cassie said,

"Okay. Let's get moving."

To Henry, the water was icy cold. He didn't know what it felt like to Cassie, her being a vampire and all. She was shaking, whether it was from the cold of the water or the fact that she was scared out of her mind. Both Tesla and Dr. Watson had already started swimming across.

After they were all across, Henry took a look around at the others in the group. They looked like drowned rats. He knew that he was no prize to look at either.

"God I'm tired."

"Well if Miss I-can't-swim over there hadn't been such a wuss, you wouldn't be so tired then now would you, Wolf Boy?"

Choosing to ignore Tesla, Cassie turned to Henry and said,

"Thank you Henry. Now, let's go steal an airplane."

* * *

><p>The ground crew had worked on the black Twin Otter for about two hours, doing the basic maintenance and refueling it. Some bigwigs had come in for some meeting about these super top secret experiments that were nearly finished. Everyone talked around the crew, not caring that they were there, under the impression that they were deaf.<p>

All he cared about was getting a steady paycheck. The crew chief didn't know what was going on inside the building, and he wasn't particularly sure he wanted to know. These people were creeps.

At least those bigwigs would be leaving soon. Then it would be back to business as usual.

The crew chief's last thoughts came as he got the phone call that the bigwigs were coming out.

"_At last…"_ Then something made of metal hit him in the side of the head, and he blacked out.

Henry came back downstairs and said,

"Crew chief's out. But we need to work fast. We're going to have company in less than five minutes."

Cassie smirked saying,

"Well then, we don't have a moment to lose."

Mercifully, the door to the plane was unlocked and the ramp was already out. The pilot had been hanging out with the crew, and had been one of the first to get knocked out.

Quickly taking charge, Cassie ordered,

"Okay. Tesla, Doctor Watson. Throw anything nonessential overboard. We're going to need all the fuel we can get, and the heavier the plane, the more fuel it uses up. Keep the radio."

Both of them quickly got to work. Tesla didn't even stop to argue.

Cassie then turned to Henry asking,

"Henry, where would you have a tracking device on this plane?"

Thinking for a moment, he said,

"I can think of a few places."

"Good. Check them out and if you find any, destroy them."

Continuing the preflight check, Cassie found there to be no problems. She began taxiing the airplane down the tarmac as soon as Tesla and Watson were done and Henry had destroyed the tracking device he found. Deciding to have a little fun with her passengers, she said,

"Passengers, this is your Captain speaking. Please buckle your seatbelts and keep them in their upright and locked positions."

Cassie could practically hear Tesla rolling his eyes. Henry asked,

"This isn't that long a runway. Are you sure you can take off?"

Paying more attention to actually flying the plane, Cassie sent Henry a message.

"_One of the things the Twin Otter was designed for was dealing with a limited amount of runway for both taking off and landing. Since we're about to have company, sit down!"_

The guards that had come with bigwigs were shooting their machine guns, trying to shoot the plane down. Cassie had to do a bit of fancy flying to dodge them.

When the guards searched through the stuff that had been dumped, they found a letter addressed to one of the big bosses, Dana Whitcomb.

Later, when they were able to get to her, Dana opened the letter. It only had two words.

"You Lose"

Dana then thought to herself,

"_I never lose."_

* * *

><p>"So… Where are we headed?"<p>

This had been the fifth time Tesla had asked that question. Since Cassie was focused on flying, Henry had been left to field Tesla.

Rolling his eyes in exasperation, Henry said,

"For the last time, Tesla, we are heading for the Moscow Sanctuary."

Watson did have a relevant question,

"When we looked at the map, weren't we found to be closer to the Tokyo Sanctuary rather than the Moscow one?"

Calling from the cockpit, Cassie stated,

"Yes, we were closer to the Tokyo Sanctuary. But I decided that it was too risky. We would be going out over open water, and I don't…" Tesla interrupted her saying,

"Yes, we know. You don't know how to swim. Which is something that we are going to be fixing, when we get back to the Sanctuary."

Cassie glared at him using a mirror that was in the cockpit.

"I actually have another reason for why I chose to avoid open water."

"Then enlighten us, Irish She-Devil."

"Since we liberated this plane, we do not have a flight plan. I do not like flying over open water without a flight plan, so at least people will know where we are if we have to ditch the plane at sea."

Watson nodded his agreement.

For the next hour, things were actually pretty quiet, until Henry cut himself on a piece of machinery that he was working on.

"Ow," he muttered quietly. Henry then realized just how much danger he may actually be in.

As far as he knew, neither Cassie nor Nikola had either taken the medication that took away the bloodlust, or had even fed from an animal of some sort. And judging from their reactions to his mutter, they'd heard it and smelled the blood.

Sensing his thoughts, Cassie said out loud,

"Relax, Henry. You're not on the menu."

Tesla replied,

"Speak for yourself."

Henry whirled around towards Tesla, looking at him. The expression on the other man's face was a cross between a grimace and a smirk. Henry couldn't tell whether he was being screwed with or whether Tesla was actually serious.

Tesla smirked for a few more moments, before saying,

"Relax, Wolf-Boy. I'm a ways away from being desperate enough to partake from you."

Still not quite sure whether Tesla was joking or not, Henry went back up to the cockpit area, at least there he was certain that Cassie wouldn't try to eat him, or something even worse!

* * *

><p>Cassie wasn't talking very much. She was focused on flying the Twin Otter. Unfortunately, about three hours later, Henry heard Cassie mutter something under her breath, that sounded negative, but she wasn't frustrated at anyone in particular.<p>

"What's wrong, Cassie?"

"We just ran into a headwind. We're going to be using a lot more fuel than I previously thought."

"Are we still going to make it?"

Cassie smiled and said,

"Don't worry Henry. It'll be a good landing."

"_I hope." _

When they were about 25 miles out from Moscow, Cassie told Henry to start trying to use the radio to message the Sanctuary. When it was found that the specific instructions for operating the radio were in Cyrillic, she called out,

"Tesla, why don't you come over here and make yourself useful? Fiddle with the radio to try and make it work."

After about two minutes, Tesla had the radio working and sending out messages. Cassie thought,

"_Let's hope that these people here in Moscow will get our message and not shoot us out of the sky."_

As they approached the outskirts of Moscow, the engine began to stutter. Nikola said to Cassie,

"We're out of fuel, aren't we?"

Doing her best to broadcast calm, Cassie said,

"Buckle up. Oh, and Henry?"

Henry stopped on his way to his seat and asked,

"What is it, Cassie?"

She put her hands on his collar and pulled him down for a kiss which Henry felt all the way down to his toes, and they continued to tingle as the plane landed.

* * *

><p>Henry waited with Nikola for Cassie to arrive. When she did they would be debriefed by Alexei Zhukov. Henry could barely sit still pacing back and forth down the hall. To say he was wired would be an understatement. After everything that happened he couldn't even imagine sitting down and just "waiting." What was taking Cassie so long? Why did girls have to take so long in cleaning up?<p>

Trying to come up with some conversation Henry spoke, "Man, Dr. Watson. I've seen some weird things, but this takes the cake."

Nikola licked his lips. He wasn't sure how to react to all this. He was glad to have him back, not that he would ever tell him, mind you. He, Helen, Nigel, John (even after he was revealed to be the Ripper…), and James were family even after everything they had been through, they would always be family. And James' death had hit him hard. He had faked it by making stupid jokes and burying himself in work. He had the Cabal to deal with after all. But now he had to face all the emotions he had suppressed at the time and God did he hate it.

So he did what come naturally he completely changed the subject to something other than the elephant in the room and did he have a great topic, "I'm more interested in that kiss. Here I thought you would die alone. After all, who'd want to shack up with a dog?"

Henry turned bright red. "Hey! I'm a catch!"

"I thought dogs just come?" Nikola smirked.

"You're an ass!" Henry clinched his fists.

"So are you going to ask her out?" Nikola ignored his comment.

"What?" he stuttered out by the sudden shift.

"Are. You. Going. To. Ask. Her. Out?" he repeated slowly.

"I-I, um, well," Henry had no idea what to say.

"Come on, she's given you an opening here. Wine and dine her. Just a hint she's a whiskey type of girl." Nikola winked at him.

"Please, it was just the adrenaline. I mean we were going to die. Or I was. You and Cassie would probably have walked away from the crash unharmed," Henry scoffed.

Nikola rolled his eyes at the younger man. "You really are an idiot."

"Who's an idiot?" Cassie called out walking up to them.

"Ah, the prodigal daughter has arrived. What took you so long? Primping up for wolf boy here?" Nikola gave her his signature smirk.

"So you're the idiot. Makes sense," Cassie retorted. "Now come on let's get this thing over with."

* * *

><p>Helen hurried to lab. Will had assured her that it was important that she attended it. Her heart was full of hope, but her mind was full of doubt. The door opened and her heart dropped. Nikola's face appeared on the screen before her along with Henry and Cassie. She walked forward trying to keep the tears from falling. Were they real or were they…fake?<p>

Will leaned into her whispering the scans that Sally had done at the Big Guy's order. He assured her that they were real. Helen was doing her best to keep it together.

"Helen, are those tears in your eyes for me?" Nikola asked after a moment of silence.

Helen looked up at the cheeky bugger. "Not a chance, Nikola." Helen answered with a smile that betrayed her.

"Deny it as you may but you know they are…" Nikola managed before Henry shoved the camera hog to the side.

"Doc, I am so glad to see you!" Henry said.

"You too Henry, I am glad you are all safe." Helen said. "Is Cassie alright?"

"It's just nerves." Nikola said pushing Henry from the camera view. "We were flying over the Cabal base and she panicked," he added.

Cassie glared at him as she made her presence known on the screen. "I'm sorry but flying over enemy ground is not on the top ten things on my 'to do list'," Cassie said.

"Well I am glad you are okay, Cassie." Helen said smiling at the vampire.

"Then does that mean kissing Wolf-Boy was on your 'to do list?" Nikola smiled as he let the words slip from his mouth.

"Nikola!" Helen scolded. "Honestly, you are incorrigible."

"Me…never! These two…well say your Hail Mary's," he said with a cheeky grin.

"Does he have to come back alive?!" Henry asked pouting.

"Yes, and preferably in one piece." Helen said giving a full hearted smile to them. "We will need to make arrangements to pick you up to make sure you have no tracking beacons imbedded."

Nikola looked at to his side where James sat off camera. "That is probably a good idea." He had not thought about how to tell Helen that there was a clone of James with him. "There is one other thing…we have to deal with when we meet."

Helen looked at Nikola. "What is it?"

"Well it's not so much of it, it's more like a who?" Nikola said.

"Nikola, tell me." Helen ordered.

Nikola stood up and Helen stared. She was glad that the snarky incorrigible vampire was not there and even more so that he could not see her face. He looked really good in blue jeans. Helen didn't know if it was just her hormones or not, but it was getting warm. Her mind which was racing with the thought of the last time they were together came to a screeching halt for two reasons. One she hadn't told Nikola yet about the baby, the second and main reason was the face that now showed on the screen.

"James." Helen could feel herself draining of all color. "But…"

James looked at Helen. He knew that this was all a shock to her, especially after Nikola told him he had died a few years back. "We need to talk in person." James said after a moment.

"Agreed." Helen said as she tried to calm herself. "The safe house on the out skirts of Old City."

* * *

><p><strong>AN 2: The next chapter will be an interesting one, and the wait will be **_**very**_** short!**


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter XII**

**A/N: Many thanks to Haku2009, who helped bring parts of this chapter to life. What happens in this chapter was not in the original planning, for Dobby-the-HAP gave me this idea, and it would just not leave me alone. And thanks to anyone else who helped. Remember, everything in my stories happens for a reason, even if it is not apparent right away. Enjoy the chapter, my readers.**

* * *

><p>All Cassie wanted to do was bolt from the sickbay and hide away yet she pushed those impulses down. First she had been turned into a vampire now the Cabal had kidnapped her and did God only knows what else to her. Her memory was still blurry, leaving her with questions she didn't know if she wanted answered.<p>

Helen, knowing Cassie's anxiety was being amazing. She allowed her to, observe being the last one to be examined. This gave her time to calm herself.

Henry went first. He just wanted it over and done with. Helen did the typical blood work, scans, and physical exam. Passing the samples along to Biggie she moved on to Nikola. Henry went to sit beside Cassie. A hand wrapped around her waist squeezing reassuringly. She felt a blush creep up her cheeks.

She had told him the kiss was just the adrenaline but even she didn't completely believe that. With the warmth of his body bleeding into her own she felt something inside her that she long since thought dead.

"Couldn't wait to get my clothes off now could you?" Nikola joked taking off his shirt to allow Helen access.

She just smirked placing the cold stethoscope against his skin causing him to hiss in at the cold. "I'm afraid we don't have the time for that now. Besides," she typed into her computer before taking a syringe, "I have something to tell you. It is rather important." She jabbed him taking a blood sample.

"Really?" he quirked an eyebrow in interest.

She handed the sample to Biggie taking off her gloves. "I'm pregnant."

A crash filled the now very silent room as Nikola knocked the tray over as he suddenly stood up. Henry and Cassie just gaped at her while Biggie didn't react probably because he already knew. He is, after all, her confidant.

"WH-what?" Nikola never looked so completely lost before as he did in that moment.

"Cassie could you please sit on the exam table?" Helen instead instructed her. Cassie was so in shock that she obeyed forgetting about her fear of exams. Taking off her top shirt her eyes never left Helen. "I'm pregnant. I found out not long after you were taken."

"We're going to have a baby?" He never even imagined being a father. As much as he hated to admit failing at anything he was sure he would at this.

Helen took a sample of blood from Cassie passing it to Biggie. "Yes, you're going to be a father."

The image of him, of the three of them, finally came into view. He loved her. He's always loved her and the thought of the three of them it warmed him to the core. Impulsively he spun her around grabbing a hold of her lifting her into the air laughing.

"I'm going to be a Dad!" He had never been so happy.

Helen was so taken aback stiffened in his arms. This had not been the reaction she had expected. She loved him yes but he was never the family man type. Seeing the pure joy on his face the fears she had that caused her to blurt out the news dissipated. Her arms wrapped around him slowly. She buried her face in his neck breathing out a sigh of relief.

Henry and Cassie exchanged a look mostly of relief upon realizing this was good news.

"Congratulations," they both offered.

Helen and Nikola smiled accepting. The gloom that seemed to fill the room since their arrival back lifted as only happiness radiated from them. A bing on her computer caused Helen to pull away only to check the results that had just appeared. Having your own private lab comes in handy to get the results back quickly.

Clicking on the mouse her eyes read over them and the smile that was plastered on her face vanished. This caused everyone else to freeze unconsciously holding in their breaths.

"Just rip the band-aid off," Henry told her.

Helen turned back to her eyes falling on Cassie. A lump formed in her throat. She couldn't speak so she just nodded once.

Helen stepped forward. "Cassie." She paused. "You're pregnant."

She stared at Helen for a long, long, moment. Then she just laughed. It was so completely absurd. There was no way. No possible way in hell that she was pregnant. She hadn't had sex in so long she was sure her ovaries had shriveled up and died.

"Cassie." Henry reached out to her.

"No!" She yanked away from him. "No this is NOT possible. A baby means I've had sex and I haven't had sex so that, this, it's not possible." Tears welled in her eyes. She couldn't be pregnant, she couldn't have a baby. Not with her life. She would screw up any kid. She was screwed up as it was with the life she's had. She paced around the room trying to breath, trying to _think_. Abruptly she stopped. If she was pregnant then who was the father? "I-I didn't have sex. They did this to me didn't they?" Her eyes begged Helen for an answer but she said nothing which was all the answer she needed. "Who's the father? Whose baby am I carrying?"

"I can run a DNA test against known samples in my database. I can also run a DNA profile to tell what type of child you're carrying," Helen's voice purely professional and Cassie was grateful for that.

"Do whatever tests you need to." Cassie's eyes were cold and lifeless. She didn't know how to process any of this information all she could do now was get answers.

Once she got out of the infirmary, before Henry could do anything, Cassie bolted to the hangar. It was the one place she could be in control in a world that was spiraling out of control.

And when she got there, Gwen made a noise of happiness at seeing her pilot again. It made her smile.

"Hi Gwen, long time no see."

Gwen purred as Cassie ran her hands along her wing in an old gesture.

It was good to be back with her old friend. Here everything made sense. Here the world seemed as it was back on New Year's Eve.

"Have I got a story to tell you Gwen…" Cassie started.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, back in the lab…<p>

Helen was running the tests that Cassie had given her carte blanche to do. She was as curious as Cassie about the identity of the father. Then again, the girl was probably more frantic than she was, and with just cause.

"_What everyone saw was the scared teenager that she appears to be. Cassandra actually sounded the age she appears to be."_

Helen heard another beeping noise. She hadn't expected results that fast. When she saw the results of the test, she ran them again. The results were the same. Just for her own thoughts, she ran the tests a third time. Not surprisingly, they were the same as the previous two times.

Helen wasn't sure what to think, what to feel. She placed a hand over her not yet showing belly. She had been so happy. She was also terrified no doubt about that. With what happened to Ashley she had every right to be but this time they were going to be a family. Now though, everything was going to fall apart.

Staring at the results, the ones that proved that Nikola was the father of Cassie's baby what she wanted to do was delete them and pretend she saw nothing. Yet she wouldn't. She wasn't that type of person. Instead she sat here staring at them working up the nerve to tell her.

Standing up she goes into the bathroom to clean up. She had to be strong for Cassie. She couldn't be falling apart on her, the girl needed her. Not only as her doctor, but as someone to hold her hand. She knew Nikola would do the right thing by her. As much as he goofed around trying to "take over the world" he had always been an honorable man.

Splashing water in her face she took a deep breath. She could do this. She was Helen Magnus, she didn't fall apart.

Helen stood in the doorway watching Cassie. She looked so broken and so young. One could almost think she was actually nineteen. Helen fought the urge to wrap her arms around the younger girl rocking her back and forth. She wished she didn't have to tell her. She wasn't sure how she would react and she didn't want to break her more than she already was.

Finally she stepped forward. "Cassie?"

Her eyes flickered over to Helen, red and swollen from crying. It broke her heart.

Cassie rubbed her eyes sitting up straighter. "Helen."

Helen walked over sitting down beside her taking Cassie's hands in her own. "I just received the results." Cassie said nothing waiting for Helen to continue. "The father of your baby," she paused breathing in deeply, "it's Nikola."

Cassie yanked her hands away. "Is this another one of your jokes, Doc?"

Her eyes saddened. "I would never joke about something like this."

"Why him?" her voice spat with venom.

"He's a vampire, you're a vampire. The Cabal has always had an obsession with the species. The two of you are the closest things to full vampires as we have. Your child could wind up a true vampire," Helen explained calmly.

"And I thought things couldn't get any fucking worse." Not only was this Nikola they were talking about he was about to be a father to Helen's baby.

"I know this seems awful but we will get through this," Helen tried to comfort her.

"I don't see a way out."

Cassie jumped from her seat running away. She couldn't be here anymore. Especially with Helen right there, Cassie had no idea why Helen would still be nice to her.

"Wait!" Helen shouted. Cassie whirled around more out of surprise than anything else. "We have to talk with Nikola."

"Tell him whatever you want, I don't care!" With that she was gone leaving Helen to stare after her.

"_Definitely the teenager."_

* * *

><p>"Nikola we need to talk," Helen spoke interrupting whatever experiment he was working on.<p>

"Just give me a second. I'm at the edge of a break through." Nikola's fingers flew across the keyboard.

Helen clinched her hands. She had been working up to this since she got the results. "No, Niko. I need to speak to you now. This can't wait."

His fingers froze mid-stroke. He turned back to her his eyes scanning Helen's face. The tone in her voice made his stomach drop. "What happened?"

Helen swallowed the lump in her throat. "It's about Cassie's pregnancy."

He let out a sigh of relief that had nothing to do with him. "What about it?"

He turned back to work. Helen grabbed his arm forcing him to look at her.

"The baby's yours," she hissed out harsher than she meant too.

Nikola stared at her shocked and confused before shaking his head. "No that's not possible. Your test is wrong."

"I double and triple checked the results. You are the father," she replied.

Nikola collapsed into the nearest chair. "What does this mean?" Helen turned away. She had been trying to answer that herself yet nothing seemed to come. "Helen?" He stood up grabbing her.

"I don't know Nikola. I really don't know," she confessed wrapping her arms around him burying her face in his chest.

* * *

><p>Cassie stormed into the hangar in a fine Irish temper and in full vamp out mode. When she saw her pilot, Gwen made an interrogative noise.<p>

Turning towards Gwen, Cassie said,

"You remember the law that says "If you think that things can't get worse, they will"?

Gwen made a noise of assent.

"Well things just got worse. You won't believe who the father is. And if he ever comes in here, or tries to at least, I want you to shoot him. Even though it does absolutely nothing to him. Got it?"

After calming down visibly, Cassie said,

"I'm going to be spending a lot of time out here for a while. I'd like to spend some time with you."

For the next three days, Cassie spent all of her time in the hangar. Gwen was on high alert, for her oldest friend was not feeling like herself.

There was a small bathroom in the hangar, and Cassie was spending more time than she cared to admit in that bathroom courtesy of morning sickness. More like morning, noon, and night sickness. She also found herself thinking about feeding on human blood, more often than ever before.

In the afternoon of the third day, Gwen made a noise that signaled that someone was coming. Splashing some water on her face, Cassie left the bathroom. She smiled faintly when she saw who was out in the hangar. It was Henry.

"Hey, how're you doing?"

"I've been better." To Gwen, Cassie said, "Stand down, he's alright."

Sitting on one of Gwen's wings, Cassie motioned for Henry to join her. As soon as Henry sat down, the airplane rearmed her guns. Noticing this, Henry asked

"What's with the heavy firepower? It's not like you're not safe here."

She gave him a look which Henry ignored as he continued,

"About the only reason I can think for you to be out here for such a long time is that you're avoiding something, or someone. Am I right in saying that?"

Cassie nodded slightly. She wasn't in the mood to practice deceit, especially with Henry.

"Also, I'm guessing that your sudden liking for being out here has to do with those test results of yours."

Looking at him suspiciously and with narrowed eyes, Cassie asked,

"What did Helen tell you?"

"All she told me was that the results had come in, and that if I wanted to know more, to ask you."

Cassie realized that this was something she needed to face, and she might as well start with telling Henry.

"You really want to know who the father is?"

Taking a deep breath, he said,

"If you want to."

Cassie started with,

"You know that all three of us got heavily dosed with memory drugs and the like while we were in captivity."

Henry nodded. He had a bad feeling where this was headed.

"According to the good doctor, the people that had us kidnapped are obsessed with vampires. And they'd like to see more vampires. They had at their disposal, the two closest approximations to vampires left in the world."

Henry was silent as he worked through what she'd said, realization leading to horror when he'd figured out what had been done.

"Oh my God, you're having Tesla's kid too?"

"God had precious little to do with what was done to me. But you are correct, Henry."

Henry was silent for several minutes, absorbing the news. He then asked,

"Does he know?"

"Probably, Helen's most likely told him by now. After she told me the news, I went out here."

After a few more minutes of silence, Cassie's stomach started growling.

"When was the last time you ate?"

"Roughly three days ago, why?"

"You probably need to eat more often than that, especially given your condition. You're eating for two."

Cassie sighed. She could tell that there would be no talking him out of this.

"Okay, I'll try to eat something. But be warned, I most likely will not be able to keep it down."

Henry's voice took on a soothing tone,

"We'll start with something easy. Like crackers."

They got up and left the hangar.

Once they were in the kitchen, Cassie completely forgot her nausea. Forgetting the idea of crackers, she made a beeline to the refrigerator. Once there, she quickly found some steak. After adding a few spices, Cassie began to cook it.

Not wanting to get in the way of the hungry _and_ hormonal vampire, Henry left her in the kitchen to tell Helen that Cassie was back inside the Sanctuary.

Unfortunately, he ran into Tesla, who asked,

"Where have you been?"

Wanting to give Cassie her privacy, since she'd expressly told him on the way back into the Sanctuary that she did **not** want to see or deal with Nikola Tesla. Not yet anyway. She wanted to get her thoughts together before even thinking about talking to him.

It looked like Tesla didn't want to wait. But then again, he'd take Tesla's anger over Cassie's ire any day of the week.

"I've been outside."

He and Tesla had a staring contest for a few minutes before Tesla asked,

"Where is she?"

Knowing that he was talking about Cassie, he said,

"Leave her alone Tesla, she doesn't want to deal with you yet."

"That is not her decision to make."

Henry decided to make one more grasp at keeping the two vampires apart, so he said,

"At least let her eat. She hasn't in three days."

"Ah so she's in the kitchen, Heinrich?" Nikola said as he made his way down to the kitchen.

"_Dammit! Cassie's going to be very upset with me!"_

* * *

><p>Once the steak was cooked (it was still pretty rare) Cassie dug into it without much preamble. It wasn't until she was gnawing the bone of the steak that she sensed an unwanted and unwelcome presence in the kitchen. She berated herself for not paying closer attention to her surroundings. Luckily, the kitchen was big enough for her to sneak around him relatively easily (it was still difficult, he <em>was<em> a vampire). Cassie managed to get out of the kitchen without attracting Tesla's attention.

Unfortunately, she had to walk through the SHU to get to her room. No sooner had she first walked in, the smells assaulted her senses. Running back through the door she just came through, she ran to the nearest bathroom and quickly lost her lunch.

"_Am I going to be able to eat anything without puking it back up a matter of minutes later for the next several months?"_ She thought. Unfortunately as Cassie came out of the bathroom, she ran into someone. The last person she wanted to see at the moment.

"Oh stop running will you this is getting rather annoying." Nikola crossed his arms glaring at the younger vampire. "We need to talk," he sighed.

Cassie didn't even think she just reacted smashing into Nikola she flew past him headed. Nikola smashed into the wall something that Cassie would not have been able to do if he had expected her to react that way. Now thinking on who it was that he's been trying to confront should he have expected anything else? Grumbling he yanked himself to his feet chasing after her. When had he become the adult in this situation? Really? He was not known to be the reasonable one who talked things out.

Cassie wasn't sure why she was running. Okay she was. She didn't want to talk to him. She hadn't figured anything out how the hell was she supposed to deal with Nikola as well? The door to the hanger was now coming in sight. She tossed it opened with her mind flying towards her safe haven.

"Gwen!" she shouted running up to her friend. "Shoot Nikola if he comes through that door!"

Turning on her heel she faced the opening. Nikola barely stepped into the room when the shot was fired sending him backwards into the corridor.

"Oww," Nikola moaned in pain dragging himself back onto his feet. Slowly, cautiously, he walked to the door. Sticking his head through another shot fired this time he managed to dodge out of the way just in time. "Cassie! Come on we need to talk!"

"Go away!" she shouted back.

"Stop being unreasonable! Call that damn machine off!" he ordered.

"No!" And with that Cassie slammed the door shut right in Nikola's face.

* * *

><p>Grumbling Nikola sat on the couch nursing a glass of wine. Gwen had ruined yet another one of his suits. Helen stepped into the room; arms crossed sending him the what-the-bloody-hell-were-you-thinking look.<p>

"Don't start. I've already been shot." He sipped the wine. "Again."

"Well you deserved that," Helen replied.

"She needs to talk with me," Nikola retorted.

"True, but Nikola she just found out that she is pregnant by a man she doesn't even love. Worst of all it was done in a lab against her will. She pretty much-no she was raped. She's barely processed what has happened to her yet. Do you think she can deal with the conversation the two of you need to have?" Helen sat across from him. "You have to give her time."

"When do I know when it's been enough?" he then asked with a slight whine in his voice.

Helen didn't have an answer for him. This was not something you could give a time frame for.

Once Cassie was sure of the fact that she was alone, she got into Gwen's cockpit and curled up into a ball. She was _not_ going to leave the hangar. At least for the foreseeable future, however long that could be. It might be a shorter amount of time than she was used to, as her endurance seemed to not be what it usually was.

Sure enough, 36 hours later she was feeling like garbage. Cassie had never felt this bad in her entire existence. And that was including the hangover she had after V-E Day.

Cassie wasn't surprised when someone finally decided to come in to talk with her maybe even get her out of the hanger. What she was surprised about was who it was who decided to risk it. Biggie sat down beside her silently not even looking at her. She didn't know him well or at all really. He was always there assisting Helen when it came to the medical stuff but other than that they didn't really interact.

Why he was here now, she had no idea?

"Can I help you?" she finally questioned when the silence became unbearable.

"No I'm good," he answered his voice gruff but strong and weirdly comforting.

They lapsed into silence again staring at a random wall in the hanger. Biggie was perfectly comfortable sitting like this however Cassie began to squirm in the silence.

"If you're trying to get me to talk it's not going to work," she told him.

"Of course not," he agreed shaking his head.

"Or get me out of the hanger because I have no intention of leaving," she added.

"Why would you?" he agreed with her again.

The silence wrapped around them again. Cassie hated it.

"Do you have kids?" she found her wondering.

"No. I would like to have them someday," he answered her.

"I never wanted kids, or I did when I was human, but now..." she trailed off.

"You can be a mother and be abnormal," Biggie reminded her.

"I know but with everything in my life. The way I am. I'd be a terrible mother," she confessed.

"How can you be so sure? Motherhood changes people." Biggie glanced down to her.

Tears dipped down her cheeks. "Biggie. I'm scared."

A large arm wrapped around her. "It's okay to be scared." Cassie broke down clinging to the huge sweet guy that she barely knows. When the tears died down Biggie smiled at her. "Let's go. I know some good recipes for food that you should be able to keep down."

"Yeah? Because I'm starved." Cassie found herself following him out of the hanger.

"Yes, Helen had the worst morning sickness when she was pregnant with Ashley. I picked up a few tricks," Biggie replied.

"You've been with her a long time huh?"

"Oh yes. Quite a while."

* * *

><p>Cassie actually enjoyed the film festival she was having with Biggie. She'd been telling him all sorts of little tidbits about some of the movies they were watching. Cassie had been impressed that Biggie actually already knew some of the tidbits she'd told him.<p>

Henry came in as they started their last movie. Cassie smiled a greeting at him. She knew it wasn't his fault that Nikola had come looking for her. He had done his honest best to keep him away from her. She couldn't ask any more than that.

When they were about halfway through the movie, Henry noticed that Cassie had fallen asleep on his shoulder. Using his other arm to motion to Big Guy, he slowly stood and picked Cassie up.

Pausing to make sure she wasn't going to fight him, Henry started to walk towards her room, so that Cassie could sleep comfortably in a bed.

Upon getting to her room, Henry laid her down. Big Guy then suggested,

"Leave her in the clothes she's wearing. I doubt Cassie would appreciate you undressing her."

* * *

><p>"Cassie!" Nikola's voice hit her ears.<p>

On instinct she whirled around heading in the opposite direction. She had to get away. She couldn't deal with him. He just wouldn't give up. He kept showing up everywhere. So she went to the one place she knew he wouldn't go.

But Nikola knew exactly where she was headed and he had planned for it. She ran down the corridor to the hanger door grabbing the knob she tried to yank it open. The door didn't budge. She pulled with all her strength yet nothing.

"No where for you to run now." Cassie spun about to face him.

Her eyes scanned the hall. The only way out was past Nikola and he wasn't going to let her get away.

"What do want?" Cassie questioned angrily.

"I want to talk to you," he replied in his "obviously" tone crossing his arms.

"Talk about what?" she played dumb.

"Knock it off! Stop burying your head in the sand. We have to talk about this to figure out what to do. To make a plan!" he responded his voice rising.

"What does that have to do with you? You're not the one who's pregnant!" Cassie countered, while trying (and failing) to suppress the tears that she could feel coming.

"You're not the only one they did this to!" Nikola shouted at her.

"Well your part is done!" Cassie shouted back at him with equal force. Tears were spilling over her cheeks, despite her best efforts.

Nikola froze. That's what this has been all about? His eyes closed as he let out a frustrated sigh. "That's what you think? That I'd just abandon you?"

"Please, like you have any reason to stick around for little old me! Go back to Helen and have the family that you've always wanted!" her voice came out as a strangled sob.

His gaze softened. He took a step forward causing her to take one back. She obviously didn't want him to touch her. "You're not in this alone." He took another step closer only this time when she stepped back in response she hit a wall. "This," he placed a hand on her stomach, "This is "our" baby. I'm not going anywhere."

Her walls came crumbling down. Tossing her arms around him she sobbed into his shoulder clinging to his desperately. His arms wrapped protectively around her holding her tightly to him. Tears overflowed pouring down his cheeks. He buried his face in her hair.

They may not have been in love but they could do this together as friends. They could be parents.

Cassie thought,

"_Gottverdamnt hormones. I'm getting soft."_

Once both of them calmed down, she asked,

"So what _are_ we going to do about…this?"

Nikola had been so focused on getting her to even speak to him; he didn't know where to start.

Smirking, Cassie said,

"You don't know where to start!"

Not one to back down, Nikola snapped back,

"I was more focused on trying to get you to even speak to me."

"Can I use hormones as an excuse?"

"Hormones can only excuse so much, Cassandra."

That quickly got her attention. With Tesla, it was usually Cassie. Or something semi-rude. Rarely ever did he use her full name.

"What do you mean by that?"

"I know that this situation is anything but ideal, but you do need to cut me some slack. I'm new at this."

Cassie knew that things would have to be worked out, and she was still a little nervous about Helen. She would take every day as it came at her.

* * *

><p><strong>AN 2: *dives into the nuclear bunker* **


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter XIII**

**A/N: *peeks around* Is it safe to come out? Hi. I was a little nervous about the reaction to the previous chapter and I am surprised (but pleased) that people weren't more…vocal. I'm trying to walk a fine line in the next several chapters. Thanks to DevilsDuchess, FindingLight, and neverendingimagination for their help. Enjoy! SSD. **

* * *

><p>"Everything appears to be in order. Your baby is right on schedule, at least by human birth standards. Since there hasn't been a vampire birth in over a thousand years, I really don't have anything else to judge it by," Helen informed Cassie, letting her put her shirt back on.<p>

"So… the baby's healthy?" Cassie asked.

"Yes, very much so. It's a little early in the pregnancy to do detailed tests, but as of right now, your child is in perfect health." Helen assured her, squeezing her hand.

Cassie nodded, feeling a wave of relief wash over her. She had been putting off the exam for fear that there was something wrong.

"Magnus, why don't you hate me?" Cassie asked nervously.

Confusion colored Helen's face. "Why would I hate you?"

"I'm pregnant, with Tesla's kid; plus I know that I can be a royal pain in the ass and stubborn." Cassie explained.

"Cassie, none of this is your fault. I don't blame you, or for that matter Nikola. It is not like he cheated on me with you. You may be friends, but I know that is all you two are." Helen smiled softly.

"But-"Cassie was about to protest, but she was cut off, "I know this was not how things were supposed to happen, but I promise I don't hate you or for that matter even angry at you for what has happened. It was beyond your control. You're a good person, a member of this organization, and I'd also like to say family."

Cassie's eyes watered, and before she could stop herself, she tossed her arms around Helen's neck, giving the other woman a bear hug.

"Thank you," she sobbed. Cassie wasn't sure if it was the hormones, or just the relief of knowing she was wanted by someone.

Helen, though taken aback, easily returned the hug. She really did think of Cassie as family. There were few people who understood the time she came from, the life she lived, and as Cassie said before, she was as stubborn as she was.

* * *

><p>Cassie was feeling lighter. Yes she was still anxious, yes she was pretty sure she was going to screw up and screw up horribly so, but she wasn't alone. Nikola was going to be there. He was going to help her. He had said so; at least that was what she thought until she stumbled upon Nikola and Helen. It wasn't anything big; they were just sitting on the couch curled up together. Helen was leaning back into his chest and Nikola had his arms around her, their hands intertwined, sitting on her belly.<p>

Cassie snapped, fleeing once again. How could he possibly love her kid even a fraction as much as Helen's?

Nikola didn't even realize something was wrong. He spotted Cassie leaving the kitchen on her way towards the hangar. Speeding up, he went to catch up to her.

Noticing this, she avoided him and tuned him out.

"Cassie," he called, but she must not have heard him because she kept going. "Cassie!" He grabbed her arm to get her attention.

"What?" she snapped as she ripped her arm out of his grasp.

"Is something wrong?" he asked confused.

"No just—just leave me alone," she practically begged.

"I thought we were over this," Nikola didn't understand what was going on now.

"You know what? Just don't. Go leave me alone. You're off the hook. I can do this on my own," Cassie lied. She didn't think she could do this on her own, but it was better than her child growing up second place.

"But you don't have to," Nikola countered.

"Yeah, I do." She made to leave again but Nikola wasn't having any of it.

"I don't know what happened but I can't do anything about it if you don't tell me." Cassie began shaking her head but Nikola continued, "I'm not letting you go until you tell me."

Cassie glared. "I'm giving you an out here. Take it."

"No."

She bit her lip. "Can you guarantee that you'll love my kid as much as you love Helen's?"

"What? Is that what this is about?" Nikola practically laughed before _quickly_ realizing that it was the wrong thing to do.

Cassie shoved him. "Screw you!"

"Cassie!" The smile left his face as he braced his arms on either side of her. "Of course I will. I get that hormones are running through you and this is not the way you are supposed to have a baby. You're supposed to be with the man you love. Instead you have me, but that doesn't matter because I will love this baby, I can promise you that."

"How can you? With Helen's baby coming as well how are you going to juggle that?"

"It won't be easy. But then again, nothing like this ever is. I will find a way to make this work out."

"Okay." Cassie relaxed slightly.

He breathed a sigh of relief.

"Okay." He smiled back. _Another battle to think about._

As they walked back inside, Tesla began to get an evil grin on his face. Noticing this, Cassie stopped.

Narrowing her eyes, she asked, "What are you up to?"

"Well, we know that the kid is going to be brilliant. It'll have my brains!"

"Are you saying that I'm stupid?"

"No!"

Cassie shoved him semi-playfully, and left for her room. She was tired and she was sleeping for two.

* * *

><p>Cassie became aware of her surroundings, the pillows were warm against her face, she snuggled deeper into the covers trying to retain the warmth and drift back off to sleep. She sighed and rolled over, the sudden movement making her head spin, her stomach churned in sympathy and nausea washed over her. She remained as still as possible trying to make the sudden dizziness go away but the nausea worsened. She felt the familiar sensation wash over her in waves, growing like the incoming tide. She pulled back the duvet and sat up, the room seeming to spin afresh, or perhaps she was unable to stay still, it was hard to tell. She got to her feet, her legs like jelly and stumbled across the room. She felt as though she were trying to cross the deck of a ship in the middle of a hurricane. She felt so awful, tears began stinging her eyes, she took another few steps and collided with the dresser. She righted herself and felt like she was swaying backwards and forwards. She opened the door, barely aware of her surroundings and knew she was going to be sick. Unable to walk due to the nausea and dizziness she slumped to her knees and crawled as fast as possible to the bathroom.<p>

She reached up and threw the toilet seat back just as her stomach heaved. The first few seconds were a welcome relief, the action easing her nausea. The hot, foul smelling liquid burned her throat and her abdomen ached as she heaved again, and again. She had a few seconds respite and gulped air, coughing and spluttering. She felt her stomach heave and threw her head forwards once again. Her throat was agony and her stomach screamed in protest as her stomach contents were fully emptied and she began to dry heave. Mercifully she only brought up foul tasting yellow bile, no blood was involved. She was shaking and muttering slightly as the heaving began afresh.

Henry ran his fingers through his hair and yawned; he passed Cassie's room and was concerned to find the door wide open.

"Cassie," he called in, but received no reply.

A loud "huuuuuuurrrrrrrggggghhhhh," reached his keen ears. Cassie.

He spun around to face the bathroom door and ran to her distressed cries. He could smell the puke long before he saw it, the smells of acid and partially digested food assaulting his sensitive nose as he neared the door. He pushed it open and looked down at her, his eyes taking in the God only knew what was dripping from her lips with each heave. Her knuckles white from gripping the edges of the toilet. His mind flashed back to a night, easily fifteen years ago.

_He awoke to movement along the corridor and climbed out of bed to investigate, the bathroom door was open, the light from within casting a harsh beam of yellow over the wooden flood. He padded over and saw the dark unruly curls of his adopted mother splayed over her silk nightgown as she kneeled behind Ashley's small form. Her hands held Ashley's long blonde hair behind her. She turned at his arrival and smiled gently.  
>"It's alright Henry, go back to bed,' she urged him.<em>

_Ashley heaved and cried, Helen turned back to his little sister in flash, one hand keeping its grip on her daughter's hair the other stroking her back gently._

"I know sweetheart, its okay, mommy's here, it'll stop soon, it'll all be over soon,' she turned back and smiled at him."She'll be alright Henry, go get some sleep; you don't want to catch this too."

He nodded sleepily and trudged back to his room, his fourteen year old body requiring its sleep. As he padded away the sound of Helen's voice floated along with him.

He could still hear Helen's comforting tone and almost instinctively he reached out and tenderly pulled Cassie's hair from around her face, clasping it with one hand. He lifted the other and rubbed her upper back in a circular motion, muttering words of comfort as softly as he could. He held her until the heaving finally subsided. He let go of her hair, satisfied she had stopped, and slipped his hand around her waist to hold her up, her chest heaved against his arm with the effort of holding back a flood of tears. He passed her some toilet paper and she wiped her mouth slowly.

She sniffled quietly and fought to compose herself; she dropped a hand to cover his and stroked his knuckles absently. She had never had anyone care for her like this, it was completely new and she didn't know how to react. She wanted to let him in and allow him to help her but at the same time she was still too afraid. She took a deep steadying breath and tucked her hair behind her ear.

"Thank you," she breathed, gripping his hand tightly.

"We need to get you down to the infirmary, that was at least a ten minute puking jag, and that's just what I was here for. I know you've been having a lot of morning sickness problems. Vomiting this much can't be good for you or the kid."

"I can get ready on my own. Let me get cleaned up and dressed." Cassie shook her head to clear it.

Roughly fifteen minutes later, and Henry was about to barge in to check on her, Cassie opened the door and gave Henry a small, shy, smile. He could see that she was paler than usual, and the dark blue shirt she was wearing only enhanced that.

"Come on. Let's get down there."

While they were on their way down there, Cassie caught a whiff of something that smelled like it was rotting fruit. Her stomach churned, even though there was nothing left to throw up. Noticing that Henry had caught the same whiff of the rotting scent, she asked,

"Henry, do you know what that is?"

"No, but let's get away from here before we both get sick."

Once they moved away, Henry got the guts to ask her,

"Cassie, have you ever seen the movie, _Bringing up Baby_?"

"Yeah I did. I saw it when it was new, though it's been a while since I saw it last. Why do you ask?"

"_Okay Henry. Just ask it. The worst she'll say is no."_

"There's this movie theater here in Old City that shows all the classic movies. It's like one of those movie palaces, I'm sure you remember those."

Cassie nodded. There weren't too many left and most of the ones that were left were mere shadows of their former selves. Henry continued, visibly nervous.

"Well… that particular theater is showing _Bringing up Baby_ on Friday, and I was wondering… if…" Henry was losing his bravado.

Cassie decided to be nice to him and said,

"Henry, I'd love to go see that movie with you. I could use a good laugh."

"Good. Let's get you down to the infirmary."

"Actually, why don't we do that later? I feel great right now and I do have some maintenance work to do for Gwen."

Henry knew Cassie was doing her best to limit her contact with Helen as much as possible. He decided to let it go.

* * *

><p>Nikola lingered in the shower longer than he normally did. He used the time to think about his future children and the unruly demands of one Helen Magnus. He took a shower two to three times a week, but Helen was now making him take a shower three times a day. Her excuse was that he was sweaty and stinky. Too make things worse for him, Helen could not handle the smell of wine. Rolling his eyes at the memory of Helen refusing to kiss him because of wine breath, Nikola turned the water off.<p>

Shower number three was now done and Helen would be pleased. Nikola chuckle as he towel dried his hair leaving it messy. Helen would not admit it but she loved his hair messy, not to mention it would save her the trouble of doing it herself. Nikola dressed and left the bathroom. He debated seducing his ever so beautiful lover; however it would mean another shower. Nikola's lips curled, he could always take a shower with Helen.

Helen looked up as Nikola entered her office grinning. Oh boy. She thought before scrunching her nose. He smelled horrible. The odor made her stomach turn. "Nikola shower again." Helen heaved for air to prevent vomiting.

"What?" Nikola cried out in horror. "I just took one!"

Helen covered her nose and mouth. "With what, a dead cat?"

Nikola pouted. "With water and soap," he bitterly growled, feeling slightly offended.

"Did you scrub?"

"Of course I did! You are more than welcome to come show me how to do it." Nikola pouted before waggling his eyebrows at her.

"Nope." Helen smiled pointing to the door. "Go shower again!"

"If I get any cleaner, I'll sparkle like that dreadful Edward Cullen boy!" Nikola protested.  
>Helen could not help but to laugh at the sad face Nikola added with those words.<p>

* * *

><p>The next few days were rather quiet. Other than Tesla being peevish about having to shower up to six times a day of course. This was rather funny, at least for everyone but him.<p>

Cravings had hit both of the pregnant women with full force. Helen was craving of all things, durian. Even though it reeked to high heaven, she still ate the stuff like it was going out of style. Everyone around her had taken to wearing gas masks whenever they had to be in the room while she was eating it. Helen used the excuse that it was for increasing her iron intake.

Cassie on the other hand had, had a strange food combination she was craving: hot wings and Phish Food ice cream. Which actually wasn't that bad compared to the durian. At least it didn't reek to high heaven. She didn't put the ice cream on the wings; Cassie just liked the flavor combination. She was also avoiding the durian, which would play havoc on her sense of smell and quickly make her want to vomit. Cassie had politely declined to join Helen in the eating of the durian, which would make her even sicker than just the smell. She was eating cashews for her supplemental iron.

Friday came, and Cassie was actually _nervous_. She was never nervous in situations like this. It was just a movie; nothing more, nothing less.

Cassie knew that she was lying to herself. She'd really come to enjoy Henry just for being Henry. He made her smile and laugh. And he was taking her to one of her favorite movies.

"What are you doing?"

Cassie rolled her eyes. Tesla was trying to keep tabs on what she did, every moment of every day. She didn't appreciate it.

"What does it look like I'm doing, genius? I'm getting cleaned up."

"Why are you getting cleaned up?"

"It's really none of your business."

"It is if you're involved," Nikola retorted. Cassie whirled around, eyes flashing.

"I am my own person; you have no say in what I do in my free time."

"Or who you're with? I heard that Henry was thinking on asking you out."

Knowing that he wouldn't let it go until he found out, Cassie said,

"I am going out with Henry to see a movie. Don't even think about trying to stop me, Tesla."

"I know better than to even try that. You're more stubborn than a mule."

"Please leave my room."

Tesla, for once deciding not to pry any further, left her room. But he was thinking,

"_Doesn't mean that I can't tease the mickey out of Henry."_

* * *

><p>Henry was doing a firewall check on the computer network of the Sanctuary. They were being all the more vigilant since he, Tesla, and Cassie had been captured by the Cabal.<p>

"I heard that wolves were fast workers, but this is faster than average."

Henry closed his eyes and counted to ten. He had a feeling about what Tesla was talking about.

"If you have something to say Vlad, then say it. I have things to do before I go out."

"I hear that you're going out on your first date with Cassie to the movies. Classic first date."

Henry decided to hold his tongue. Tesla was being his usual charming self, only more peevish. Henry supposed that having to shower up to six times a day due to the Doc's newly overactive sense of smell; he would be irked as well.

"So what are you taking her to see?" Nikola smirked smugly. "Given her age I think a classic movie would work."

"Vlad, I wouldn't talk about her age, at least she doesn't have to beg to be liked." Henry snapped, irritated with the vampire.

"Ouch," Nikola mocked a hurt expression, "If I cared about your opinion of me that really would of hurt."

Henry rolled his eyes. He could have felt pity on Nikola, but what the hell. "Don't you have another shower to take?"

Nikola stared at him slightly offended before storming out of the lab slamming the door.

* * *

><p>About fifteen minutes later, Henry was ready to leave. At least he'd picked a good movie. Biggie had given him some help with the choosing, since he was the other resident classic movie nut.<p>

Cassie was already down by the garage when he got there. She had a smile on her face. She was wearing casual clothes, but they looked a bit dressier than her usual clothing.

"Come on Cassie. Let's go."

Once they got to the theater, Cassie felt better than she'd been feeling for the past month. This was something ordinary, and she loved it. She felt that she would take it easy with the snacks. Cassie didn't want to get sick on her date.

The movie started, and Cassie began to relax. This was going to be fun.

As the movie went on, Henry watched it less and watched Cassie more. He was glad that she seemed so relaxed.

When they got to the "Let's play a game" bit, Henry moved his arm so it would be around Cassie's shoulders. He then felt what could only be called a poke in his mind and heard Cassie's mental voice saying,

"_Not so fast wolfman."_

Normally Henry did not like it when someone (Tesla nine times out of ten) used a nickname like that. But it felt different when Cassie said it.

A short time later, Cassie whispered in his ear,

"Not that I didn't appreciate that of course."

After the movie ended, they were on their way out, and Cassie was nearly asleep on her feet.

"_Well, she is doing nearly everything for two at the moment."_

Once they were outside, Cassie perked up a bit, the clear night air waking her up a bit. She and Henry walked in a companionable silence.

* * *

><p>Suddenly, Henry stopped abruptly and spun around as if he heard something.<p>

"Henry?" Cassie questioned.

He held a finger up to silence her. His gaze became focused as he shifted towards an alleyway. Suddenly, he was off racing towards the alley with Cassie right on his heels, but did not yet know what was going on. But it became apparent when she heard screams. Cassie could make out a man pinning a woman to the ground. Rage flared up, but she didn't get the chance to do anything as Henry tackled the man off the girl.

Henry was laying into him hitting him again and again. Cassie went to the woman. Crying and scared but seemingly unharmed as Cassie helped her to her feet. By the time Cassie was focused on Henry he was dragging the bastard to his feet.

"Call the cops," Henry ordered pinning the man to the wall.

Cassie obeyed never having seen Henry like this before.

By the time the cops had come taken the man away, gotten their statements, and sent them on their way. It was really late at night or really early in the morning, depending on how you looked at it.

"You saved her." Cassie beamed.

Henry shrugged, blushing. "You would have if you had spotted her first."

"Still you did great." Cassie nudged him playfully. That was when a scent hit her nose. "Henry, are you hurt?"

She grabbed his hand gently examining the wound. "I'm fine. It's nothing."

"We should have Magnus look at it when we get back," The tips of her fingers dipped into his blood warm, wet, and red.

"Get me an icepack and I'll be fine." Henry tried to take his hand away when he found that he couldn't. "Cassie I'm going to need my hand back." No response. "Cassie?"

Her eyes had turned black, her fangs came out, and her skin shifted to a more pale shade. Henry's heart pounded in his chest as he tried to back away. He was in a lot of danger.

"Cassie, focus. It's just a little blood. Come on it's me. You can control this." He used force to try and yank his hand free. Instead, Cassie had him pinned to the wall, fangs at his throat. "Cassie!"

Her teeth dug into his skin taking a gulp of his blood. No sooner had she gotten a taste did she get thrown off him. Henry had partially shifted using his HAP strength to remove her. The surprise snapped Cassie to her senses shifting back.

"Oh God." Her gaze fell on the wound. "No, no, no. Henry, I'm sorry." She reached out for him abruptly stopping and backing away until she was against the opposite wall.

"Hey it's okay. I'm fine," he tried to comfort her but that only made it worse.

* * *

><p>Cassie stayed outside infirmary, refusing to go in, but still wanting to make sure Henry was okay.<p>

"Well, well, well, sounds like someone couldn't resist her boyfriend's blood." Tesla smirked.

"I'm not in the mood. Don't bait me," Cassie growled. She did _not_ want to deal with any kind of garbage Tesla had in store.

"And miss this pity party? Not a chance in the world," Tesla replied.

Cassie spun on him. "I will rip you apart if you don't leave right this instant!"

"My dear we're on equal footing you can't hurt me and I can't hurt you. Now how about we focus on you for a moment. After all you almost ripped out our precious Henry's throat. How did that feel? The blood lust? Mind you it's been decades since I last fed from a person solely for the purposes of nutrition. I'll need all the details if I'm to live vicariously through you-" Cassie punched him square in the jaw with every ounce of strength she had before storming off. "I guess she can't take a joke."

* * *

><p>Cassie was in her room and she'd locked the door. She also kept one of her 1911's within reach in case Tesla got any bright ideas. Cassie had plans where she wanted to shoot him. It would be interesting to see what happened if she shot him <em>there<em>. Though Magnus probably wouldn't like it if she shot him there and it went badly. And Cassie figured that keeping Helen in a good mood when it came to her was most likely a good thing.

Cassie heard approaching footfalls. She racked the gun and said, quite loudly,

"Tesla, if that's you, get away from here before I shoot you where it won't grow back!"

"Take it easy Cassie, I'm not Tesla."

Confusion colored her face.

"Will? What are you doing here?"

"I'm here for two reasons. One reason is to tell you that Henry's going to be alright. There's no lasting damage. He really wants to talk to you. Haven't you been taking that medication?"

"I have, but it seems not to be working as well as it should. Please stay where you are. I don't want to hurt anyone else."

"What does it feel like? The bloodlust?"

"Will, I really don't want to talk about it. Leave before you go all Freud on me. I can promise you that if you try, it will not be pleasant for you."

Cassie hadn't really meant to be snippy with Will she just wanted to be left alone. She just wanted to go to sleep.

Roughly an hour later, Cassie heard a tapping at her door. She could sense who it was. Henry.

"Cassie come on, open the door. We need to talk."

Cassie felt her eyes well with tears. He'd taken her out to see a good movie and how had she repaid him? She'd jumped him over a little blood.

Yes, she was a vampire and the bloodlust had been something she'd had to deal with for nearly a century and a half. Henry's wound was clean now, so there would be no need to worry.

Once she let him in, Henry noticed that Cassie was fighting back tears. She obviously still felt guilty over the incident. She wouldn't even look at him.

"Cassie, look at me." When she still wouldn't look at him, he turned her face towards him, gently saying, "Cassie look at me. I'm alright."

Turning to him with tears still in her eyes, she replied,

"I am so sorry Henry. The evening was so nice up to that point, and there I was jumping for your jugular. I could've hurt you a lot worse that I did."

Henry just held Cassie as she shook in his arms. She was on an emotional roller coaster ride. So he decided to try and make her smile.

"So I heard you give Tesla a nice left hook to his jaw. How did that feel?"

Cassie's eyes lit up as she told him. Henry was happy that she was smiling again.

* * *

><p><strong>AN 2: For those wanting to find out more about the durian, go to youtube and type in "durian andrew zimmern". Click on the first video you see. You will find out about durian there.**


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter XIV**

**A/N: Ah another update. This was beta'ed by Whytewytch. Enjoy the chapter! SSD**

* * *

><p>Helen was going over personnel files for another medical doctor at the Old City Sanctuary. Cassie was still uncomfortable with her being the doctor involved and some of the work was getting a bit too much for Helen.<p>

Yes, there was the James clone. But the clone was at one of the London Sanctuary's safe houses, getting reacclimated and they were also just making sure that the clone could not, unintentionally or otherwise, somehow transmit information back to the Cabal.

The frontrunner was Doctor Akbar Fasiri. He was at the Sanctuary in Cairo. He'd wanted a transfer to one of the North American sanctuaries. He too was an abnormal, though not in the traditional sense. He just had an extended lifespan, like a Numenorian in those Lord of the Rings books. He aged, albeit slowly, and would eventually die. He looked to be a man in his sixties, but was actually over 170 years old.

One thing that Helen had always found a bit odd was the fact that Akbar knew a lot of the old _Sanguine Vampiris_ legends. And he wouldn't say where he'd gotten his sources. She hadn't bugged him at the time, but now, in light of Cassie's pregnancy and her own, perhaps his knowledge would be of some use.

Helen rolled her neck, listening to the bones crack. Her whole body ached and she felt drained. With Ashley, sure there had been some fatigue, but nothing to the degree that she was feeling right now. Perhaps it had something to do with the child being part vampire.

She looked at the load of paperwork she had her desk like it was evil incarnate. She was tired of reading the same thing over again. As much as she didn't like handing over control, she needed someone in addition to Will to take over the work load.

Helen would call the Cairo Sanctuary, and tell the Sanctuary head that Dr. Fasiri's transfer had been approved. He would be in Old City within a week.

* * *

><p>Cassie's nausea had mostly abated by this point, which was something that thrilled her to no end. Except when Helen was eating that blasted stink fruit. Durian was just one of those things that made her sick to her stomach no matter what she did or what kind of medical condition she was in.<p>

Helen had reached the point in her pregnancy where she could find out what she was having. Much to Tesla's irritation, Helen wouldn't tell him. He was resorting to several different kinds of begging. It was funny to watch. Cassie was the only one who dared to openly giggle at the sight. Everyone else was barely containing themselves. He was making an absolute fool of himself.

Dr. Akbar Fasiri was happy to get out of the desert and back on the North American continent. It had been over thirty years since he'd last been there. He had a feeling that Dr. Magnus had some ulterior reasons for wanting him to come to the Old City Sanctuary, other than the fact that she was pregnant and needed some help with the workload.

She'd always been curious about where he'd gotten his knowledge concerning vampires from. But she'd respected his wishes for years, not bugging him about it. Dr. Magnus did mention that she wanted to know where he got it from now, as there was a medical situation that required his knowledge.

He also was thinking that he'd look up an old friend of his. Cassie rarely left the North American continent these days, and if she still had that mad machine of hers, she could be tracked. The last he'd heard was that she was somewhere in the American Southwest.

Once he got settled in the Sanctuary, he would set to trying to find her.

Akbar shivered. Though Old City was in the middle of a "heat wave", he still was cold. He had spent too long of a time in the desert. Dr. Magnus had mentioned that his "specialized knowledge" was needed. He wondered why it was needed, but the message had been vague at best. Then again, that was Helen's _modus operandi_.

What was waiting for him behind the doors of the Old City Sanctuary, he didn't know, but it couldn't surprise him. He'd been around too long to be surprised.

* * *

><p>Helen had called her earlier in the day, telling her to come down to the infirmary around noon. Cassie had taken to avoiding that part of the Sanctuary at all cost except for when she absolutely <em>had<em> to go down there.

Brushing her fingers along the wall, Cassie took her time. She still hadn't _quite_ gotten used to the situation she found herself in, which was at least seven different kinds of awkward.

As she got closer, Cassie began to feel a familiar presence, one she hadn't felt in over thirty years. Smiling, Cassie walked in.

"Akbar!"

Akbar was surprised to see his old friend actually in the Sanctuary. He'd been after her to go to one for years. And here she was.

Grabbing her into a hug, he spun her around as was their usual greeting. He promptly stopped when Cassie yelped,

"Akbar put me down!"

Helen noticed that Cassie was now a choice shade of green. Having a pretty good idea of what she needed to do, Helen said simply,

"Third door on the left."

Not trusting herself to open her mouth, Cassie nodded her thanks and bolted from the room.

Akbar was stunned. He could count the number of times he'd seen Cassie sick on one hand. And none of those times were while he was spinning her.

"Doctor Magnus what is wrong with Cassie?"

"I get to ask you some questions before you get to ask me anything. She's probably going to be a bit, so why don't you get comfortable?"

* * *

><p>Akbar knew that the questioning was long overdue.<p>

"I take it that Cassandra is the source of your knowledge concerning vampires?"

"Yes she is. I've known her for quite some time."

"Define quite some time."

"I've known her for about 120 years. We first met in what is today the Syrian Desert."

"How did you two meet?"

"I was travelling with a group of friends. We were on our way to Damascus. We'd been finding lots of dead jeraboah, more commonly known as desert rats. The thing was the bodies themselves were intact. But they were completely drained of blood."

"What year was it?"

"It was early 1893 I believe. May I continue the story?"

"Yes you can, Akbar."

Akbar looked up and saw Cassie. Apparently, she'd neglected to mention this particular tale in the story of her existence to Helen.

"Well the dead jeraboah were like a trail leading to an old well. That where we found a young girl pouncing on yet another rat. We watched to see what she did, since they're very hard to catch. We were surprised to find that not only had she caught it, she was draining it dry."

Helen nodded. This must have been when Cassie's control was not what it was now.

"There was talking amongst the group concerning what to do with her. Some wanted to leave her there to die, most just wanted to kill her where she stood, since the girl was obviously not an ordinary person and would most likely graduate to harming people."

"What was your position?" Helen asked, though she already had a good idea of what the answer would be.

"I was one of a group of three who thought that we should help her. Our group argued for hours. It was dark by the time I'd persuaded the others to at least let me help her. By that time, she'd left. Even though at that time she didn't understand our language very well, Cassie could understand the tone. It took me a couple of hours to find her and it took me the rest of the night to convince her to give me a modicum of trust. The rest is history."

Akbar then asked,

"What is wrong with you Cassie?"

"I'm pregnant."


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter XV**

**A/N: Another fun chapter. This was fun to write and thanks to Simlead and neverendingimagination for their help. Whytewytch helped too. Enjoy the chapter! Sparky She-Demon.**

* * *

><p>"You're <em>what<em> Cassandra?" Akbar asked with disbelief.

"You heard me the first time Akbar. I'm pregnant."

"You told me that you _couldn't_ get pregnant."

"That's what I thought too, old friend."

Mulling over the news his she'd just told him, Akbar then asked,

"I take it wasn't consensual on your part?"

Cassie snorted saying,

"It wasn't exactly consensual on the part of the father either."

Akbar observed that Helen flinched when Cassie mentioned the father. He was getting a really bad feeling about this and he had a horrible thought enter his head.

"_Why am I getting the vibe that one man is the father of both kids?"_

He hadn't been aware that he was broadcasting his thoughts until he heard Cassie's telepathic "voice" answer him,

"_The reason you're getting that vibe, old friend is because it's exactly what's going on here."_

Akbar could feel the anxiety rolling off Cassie in waves.

Deciding to keep things on topic, but lighten them up, he asked,

"So… What kind of food are you ladies craving?"

Both of them managed weak smiles, knowing that Akbar was allowing them to tell him more when they were ready.

* * *

><p>Nikola had spent the week sulking, well sulking more than usual. Cassie's pregnancy had reached the stage where the sex of the fetus could be determined, and she too, was refusing to find out or allow him to find out. Helen's stubbornness had been trying enough without Cassie joining in. He nursed a glass of Merlot in the wine cellar, glaring at the darkened space around him. He sipped the wine and let its soft fruity taste entice his taste-buds. He could make a hard drive reveal its secrets with his little finger, a glass of wine would give up its origin and name with the tiniest sniff, and yet he couldn't get Helen to divulge the gender of his unborn children.<p>

He'd even tried to get that Dr. Fasiri to give him the information. But the Druze had told him absolutely not. He'd take Tesla's ire over Helen's or Cassie's any day of the week. In fact the only thing worse than dealing with either of those women's anger would be dealing with both of them at once.

Tesla finished his glass in one gulp and plucked another bottle from one of the racks. A Cabernet Sauvignon. He popped the cork and poured a generous serving into his glass. If only there was some way to get hold of the scans and read them himself. He thought deeply for a moment and lifted his hand up; flexing his fingers. He rested his chin on his hand and started to prepare the details of his plan.

Helen eyed Nikola suspiciously. He had suddenly, without cause, cheered up remarkably. The last time she'd seen such a spring in his step he'd just survived the vampire centipedes and had a larva stowed somewhere upon his person. He hadn't pestered her about the sex of the baby for at least a week that was a red flag if ever there was one. Nikola was up to something.

Cassie had noticed his oddly cheerful behavior as well. If there was one thing she'd learned during her stay at the Sanctuary, it was that Tesla being in a good mood was a sure sign that he was up to no good. And it probably had something to do with the information she was refusing to share with him.

Nikola slipped into his make-shift lab, consisting of a laptop, portable hard drive, and several stolen textbooks from Helen's library, arranged on a small table in the insectoid wing. He had chosen the wing because it was the last place Helen would look for him. He hated insects, invertebrates, anything with small, transparent wings or fine, wiggling legs and bodies. They were almost as bad as bacteria. They made his skin crawl just looking at them.

He nervously eyed the Pinepex through its transparent cage; it was the ugliest little bugger he had ever seen. Its feelers twitched menacingly at him and he grimaced and shuddered involuntarily. He focused all his efforts on the laptop, he typed in his first command and hit the return key, so far so good. He grinned to himself and continued to write his symphony of computer code.

* * *

><p>Henry was watching the system with an eagle eye in his lab. Helen had warned him that Nikola was up to something and had been on high alert ever since. He saw the command code from his workstation and watched as Nikola entered the medical directory through a backdoor. He also noted, after some quick keyboard work of his own, where the hacking was coming from. He picked up his phone and pressed Helen's extension key.<p>

"Operation Coil is a go," he told her. "He's with the Pinepex."

Henry put down the phone and switched over to the security cameras, relaxing back in his seat to enjoy the show.

Nikola quickly found the folders he was looking for, Magnus, Helen and Flanagan, Cassandra. He opened Helen's first, and scoured through the information, she really had had a lot of injuries in her 261 years. He finally found the files and images dated for the past few months and copied them over to his hard drive. He did the same for Cassie. Satisfied with his handiwork, he disconnected from the network and opened up the textbooks. He found the pages on fetal development and found images depicting the male and female genetalia at various points in the gestational cycle, and instructions on how to differentiate between the two.

He opened up the first image; Helen's scan and stared at it. He folded his arms and sulked, it was an x-ray of a hand. His hand, if he was not mistaken, taken in 1886.

"Devious, conniving, harlots!" Nikola shouted into the empty corridor.

"Funny I was going to say the same thing about you," Helen's heels clicked as she crossed the tiled floor.

"Helen, why do you insist on tormenting me like this?" he asked frowning.

She produced a bottle of wine and a glass from behind her back.

"A peace offering?" she asked him.

"An '85 Merlot, we are feeling guilty." he jibed, still bitter.

Helen tipped her head exasperatedly and thrust her tongue into her cheek.

"I do hope you're not considering consuming any of that in your condition," he sniped, taking the bottle and glass.

"Of course not," she smiled and rubbed her stomach gently.

He placed the bottle and glass on the table and pulled her carefully onto his lap.

"Is it so wrong of me to want to know?" he asked, placing his hand on hers.

She dropped her head onto his shoulder.

"Very much so when I want it to be a surprise," she grinned.

"Conspiratorial tease." he scoffed playfully.

"Good-for-nothing scoundrel." She replied, smiling widely.

"It's what makes me so interesting." He grinned. He placed a delicate kiss to her forehead and rested his head against hers.

Helen sighed and closed her eyes, enjoying the peace and moment of closeness.

"So, can we find out tomorrow?" he asked quietly.

"Nikola!" she elbowed him in the ribs.

* * *

><p>In her opinion, Tesla had gotten off <em>way<em> to easy for attempting to find out what both she and Helen were having. While it was technically his business, he still should not have tried to hack into their private medical records.

Cassie hadn't been lying to him when she told him that she didn't know what she was having. Truth be told, she didn't really want to know. Akbar had mentioned that Nikola had tried to get the information out of him.

She'd had enough surprises for at _least_ the next several months, and then her kid would be born. Cassie would get her next surprise then. After that, she wanted no more surprises for a very long time.

Then again, knowing her luck, she was in for a ride of her existence.

* * *

><p>Henry stared dumbfounded at his computer screen. There was no way he had just used his access codes at the front gate! How code he have? <em>"Man the doc is gonna be so mad."<em> Henry groaned as he stood and made his way to the main entrance.

"_Why me? Why my codes…"_ Henry thought as he reached the hallway that would lead to the main entrance.  
>He felt a good deal of relief when he saw Cassie at the elevator. He grabbed her hand and gave it a tug.<p>

"Help me," he begged.  
>"Okay, with what?" She asked willingly following Henry.<br>"Someone used my access codes at the gate." Henry explained as they walked.  
>"Shouldn't we…"<br>"No!" Henry interrupted her. "The doc will kill me! I mean literally she will shoot me!"  
>Cassie laughed. "I think you're over-reacting."<br>Henry shook his head and released her hand. He could only hope it was not some stranger or Cabal agent. He really hated those people. He reached the door and peered through the peep-hole. His heart sank; it was not a stranger, but much worse than a Cabal Agent. Erika was the one behind the door.

* * *

><p>Henry opened the massive door still hoping that there was some way he was dreaming that his ex was here. Cassie was going to kill him. Cassie's arms wrapped around his waist; she let her mind wander into his. '<em>So this is Erika.' <em>Cassie thought bitterly. It was an unsettling feeling that turned in her stomach. Was she jealous? Cassie's arms tighten protectively around Henry in response to her own question.

"Baby, who is this?" Cassie asked forcing herself to contain the vile words that threatened to spill from her lips.

"Um this is Erika?" Henry looked at Cassie then turned to Erika.

"Baby?" Erika questioned the strange girl hanging on to Henry.

"Yeah, uh, this is Cassie. She is my girlfriend, now." Henry stuttered about his words nervously.

Cassie flashed a toothy grinned at the opposing woman. Cassie nuzzled Henry's neck. _"I don't like her." _Her voice sounded in his mind.

Henry stared blankly for a few moments. This was so awkward. He really wished now he had let Helen answer the damn door. He shook his head and against his better judgment decided to hospitable to the woman who had once torn his heart to shreds.

"Why are you here?" Henry asked releasing himself carefully from Cassie's grasp.

"Well I wanted to see you." Erika started. "I was hoping actually that maybe we could talk"

"Cassie…" Helen said as she walked in the entrance hall. "Oh hello Erika, I didn't know you were visiting."

"Neither did we!" Cassie chirped sarcastically.

Helen gave Cassie a harsh glare. "I hate to interrupt your greeting party but I need to see Cassie. Dr. Fasiri has found some improvements for the blood cravings." Helen sighed at the glisten in Cassie's eyes.

Erika looked down at Cassie's belly. Cassie could read the signs of horror in her eyes. It was almost pleasurable to see the worry. Cassie kissed Henry, pulling him close before walking to Helen. The sight forced Erika to clinch her fist in envy and disgust.

Helen glanced at Cassie. "That was uncalled for." She said lowly, but sternly as she gestured for her to walk. She would deal with Cassie first, but Henry would have an earful when she was done!

* * *

><p>Henry sheepishly slipped into Helen's office. Helen sat at her desk sorting through a file till she heard the door open. Helen pursed her lips and closed the folder pushing it from her. She had thought about this since the situation had occurred. She was not so much angry at her staff but disappointed on how they acted.<p>

"Sit. Down." Helen ordered extending her arm to the chair in front of her.

Henry silently obeyed and watched her as she rose from her seat. He wasn't just in trouble; he was dead where he stood. He swallowed hard as she walked to the front of her desk and leaned against it.

"I am very disappointed with your behavior towards Erika." Helen began.

"But I didn't do anything…"Henry defended himself.

"Your kiss with Cassie!" Helen spat folding her arms un-amused. Henry went to speak but Helen raised her hand silencing him. "I will not tolerate that behavior again. I understand she hurt you, but you do not throw your new relationship around like that!"

There was a soft knock at the door. Helen sighed before going and opening the door.

"Can I come in?" Cassie asked. She felt guilty that she got Henry into trouble over her jealously issue. She wanted to make this better for him. She knew Henry well enough to know he would not rat her out.

Helen moved from the doorway and allowed to pass. "What is it?"

"Look Doc, Henry had no part in what happened earlier." Cassie danced around her explanation; being careful not to convict herself of having the green-eyed monster on her shoulder.

"So you acted out of jealousy?" Helen accused knowing she was right.

"No! I simply wanted to let our relationship be known." Cassie explained smugly.

"Well whatever it was Cassie; it was unacceptable and is not to happen again." Helen gave both Cassie and Henry a cold glare. "Understood?"

"Yes." Cassie pouted feeling as if she were a child again.

Now that particular bit of business was done, Helen turned back to Cassie, saying,

"You and I need to head back down to the infirmary. Akbar has another way of trying to get the medicine down and mask the taste."

"What did he come up with this time?"

"Let's just go and hope it's better than the eggnog from earlier."

* * *

><p>Cassie cringed as Akbar held up a vial of the modified medicine.<p>

"It is to be administered orally," he told her and Helen. The grey liquid looked vile with the way it sloshed around the container and, to the vampire of the pair; the smell was little better.

"Is it guaranteed to work?" Helen peered at it a though it might jump out and attack her.

"I've run all tests possible. So, I'm afraid the two of you will have to be my final guinea pigs." He gave them both an apologetic look.

"Well, it beats having Tesla for breakfast." Cassie shuddered to back up her statement, watching Akbar hand a vial to Helen and hold one out to her. Helen uncapped hers and sniffed it tentatively - she had to bite her lip to prevent the exclamation of disgust from tumbling off her tongue. Turning to each other, they clinked their "glasses" and downed the contents.

Cassie grimaced, placed one hand to her throat and gasped at the burning sensation. "_What_ did you put in that?"

"Here, drink this." He picked up a small cup of...something. Then the woman shook her head with about as much vigor as possible, as if to say 'I'm never having anything you give me _ever _again'. "Don't worry, it's just ginger tea. It'll drown out the taste."

Dr. Fasiri issued both of them (including a rather green Helen) some of the tea. Helen accepted it with a grateful smile and wrapped her hands around the object, swishing it around a little. In contrast, Cassie gulped down little more than a sip straight away.

"Argh!" she hissed, clamping one hand over her mouth. If her companion had gone lift the brim to her lips a second later, she might have seen the action as forewarning. However, it was too late; the vile remedy wormed its way onto her tongue and she sprinted for the sink in the room. Eyes wide and bent double, she spat it out - she closed her eyes as it gradually trickled down the drain, and she was left occasionally retching over the sink.

Cassie winced (whether it was at the tea sliding down her throat or Helen's reaction to it). Just thinking of the other woman's experience made her queasy, almost like it was contagious. Which was silly, right?

_Actually, I do feel a bit... _She paused and stared forwards. Nauseous. That was the word.

"Oh, damn!" she yelled, then rushed over to share the basin. Akbar rolled his eyes and rested one hand on his head thinking,

_Never a boring day..._

After both women finished their gagging, Akbar said,

"I guess that one doesn't work."

Both women gave him looks that were filled with venom. Akbar backed off, as neither of them was in the mood for even dry humor.

"I'm about at my wit's end with this. I've tried everything I can think of. How are you two doing with the blood cravings on your own?"

Cassie said to him, while grimacing,

"I'm barely able to restrain myself, Akbar. I've wanted to take bites out of people all week, even when they haven't ticked me off!"

Helen then said,

"I'm glad that I'm not the only one who feels like a cannibal for wanting to feed."

* * *

><p><strong>AN 2: So… The two ladies are having blood craving issues. What's going to happen next and how will their cravings manifest themselves?**


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter XVI**

**A/N: This was quite a fun chapter to work on. A lot happens in it, so hopefully that makes up for the long wait. Nei helped a bit and thank you everyone who's read this far! SSD **

* * *

><p>Akbar heard a crash in Helen's office. After his last experience of checking to see what had happened, the old Druze had no intention of going anywhere near there, unless it was absolutely necessary.<p>

Yes, he was well over 170 years old. But there were still things one would prefer not to see their boss doing in her office. Helen seemed to have acquired a sex drive that would rival some of the men he'd met and worked with over the years.

Early on when that had started, Tesla seemed to like that. Vampires, according to the stories, had legendary sex drives. Now, even he was looking for places to hide from Helen, and was rapidly running out of options.

Akbar was looking over some blood work of Henry's when a harried looking Nikola Tesla rushed into his lab, and locked the door. Looking around and upon seeing Akbar he said, "Hide me, please!"

Smirking, the Druze replied, "Now why would I do that?"

"Even a vampire needs rest at times," said Tesla.

Akbar tried to think of a place where Helen wouldn't look for her lover. Everything he could think of he knew that Dr. Magnus would look there. A light bulb practically popped over his head, as Akbar realized the _perfect_ place for Tesla to hide. Turning to the frazzled vampire, he said,

"I know just the place where you can hide. It's the last place on the Sanctuary grounds that Helen would look for you."

Not wanting to wait Tesla said, "Well, where is it?"

Akbar grinned wolfishly. He replied,

"You'll be hiding in the hangar of course."

Tesla immediately stopped in his tracks and said,

"No, no, absolutely not. That flying deathtrap has a "shoot on sight" order for me and there's no way that Cassie will call Gwen off."

"She will if she is offered something in return and if it's in her best interests."

"And how are you going to convince Cassie of that?" Tesla scoffed.

"I know how her mind works," Akbar replied. "We just need to find her and convince her."

Even though Tesla knew that Akbar could probably talk her into letting him hide in the hangar, what would it take to manage it?

* * *

><p>After looking for Cassie in the kitchen, the hangar (only Akbar went in), and her room (which Akbar also went in alone), both men were at their wits end as to where the Irish vampire was in the Sanctuary.<p>

As a last ditch effort, Akbar and Tesla went to Akbar's office which was right next to the sick bay. Once they got closer, Tesla heard someone going through a cabinet in the sick bay.

Naturally, who they were looking for was in the last place they looked. Cassie was going through one of the refrigerated cabinets. Interrupting what she was doing, Akbar asked, "What are you doing Cassie?"

After jumping at the distraction (which wasn't as high as it used to be) Cassie turned to Akbar and queried, "I'm looking for that animal blood you have in storage, where is it?"

"It's in the fridge right by my desk. Why do you need it? You just had some a little over an hour ago."

Cassie ignored his query and went to the fridge and opened it up with her telekinesis, as it was getting difficult for her to squat down, and levitated some of the packages out. Shortly after counting them up, Cassie noticed that Tesla was also with Akbar. Her eyes narrowed to slits as she asked, "What is _he_ doing here?"

Getting in the middle before an argument could start, Akbar gave Tesla a "don't talk until I say you can" look that rivaled Helen's. He started with, "Funny you should ask about that Cassie. You see he needs a favor. From you."

Cassie snorted at that, before saying, "_He_ needs a favor from _me_? Oh, this ought to be good."

Deciding that getting this out in the open quickly would be a good idea, Akbar started, "As I'm sure you're aware, Helen's been getting rather randy," Cassie interrupted, "Are you sure the nubbins aren't loose?" before Akbar glared her into silence. He continued,

"As I was saying, Helen's getting libidinous. According to Tesla, even vampires have a need for rest. The thing is where to hide him so that Helen won't be able to find him."

"Go on." Cassie motioned for him to continue.

Akbar said, "He needs to hide in the hangar."

Cassie blinked, and looked at Akbar, then Tesla, and then back to Akbar again before saying, "You're serious?"

Tesla quipped, "Yes, She-Devil, we are deadly serious."

Cassie asked Akbar, "What's in it for me?"

Both Tesla and Akbar had discussed what would tempt Cassie into allowing him into the hangar. There was really only one thing. Tesla said, "I won't bug you about the gender of the kid. I'll wait with everyone else."

Cassie scanned his mind, or as much of it as she was willing to go into, and could tell that the mad scientist was telling the truth. A short while later she said, "Okay, I'll call Gwen off so you can hide in the hangar. But if you do anything foolish, so help me God I'll set her on you fast…"

"Yes, yes, I won't do anything to tick off that airplane of yours. Now will you call her off already?" Tesla whined.

Cassie grinned. She wanted to make him squirm for a little bit. Then again, her hunger for blood cut into the time she wanted to make the genius uncomfortable.

"Okay. I just called her off. You can go in the hangar."

Cassie quickly left Akbar's office, with the large amount of animal blood. Tesla left a short time later for the hangar. Akbar immediately got to work on some tests for Cassie. He had a nasty feeling that her blood needs were going to be changing.

* * *

><p>They had congregated in Helen's office; Kate was leaning against the couch. Cassie stood close to the door, Biggie stood to one side watching everyone quietly. Helen was stood behind her desk, whether she had chosen her position consciously was anyone's guess. Its bulkiness formed a physical shield around her, actively providing a safeguard from the vampires in her midst - something that was not lost on Cassie. Akbar was also in the room, leaning on one of the bookshelves, watching Cassie.<p>

Will was perched on the arm of a chair and staring at Helen incredulously. Henry's attention was firmly fixed on Cassie.

Nikola stood with one hand on his hip, the other was held out in front of him as he began to gesture in his flamboyant manner.

"You're joking right? This is a twisted joke?" Nikola asked. He stared at Helen, willing her to answer him. She shook her head slowly.

"I'm being deadly serious." She told him.

"Oh my god, this just gets better." Will was grinning from ear to ear.

"You wanna grow up a minute? This is serious." Kate asked him angrily.

"No, I won't do it," Cassie folded her arms and rested them on her bump. She shook her head at Helen and glared resolutely.

"So the plasma cocktail isn't cutting it anymore; it's pure premium Vampire blood from here on out, right?" Henry asked trying to clarify the situation.

Helen nodded. She sighed and stroked her own, much larger, bump absently. "Cassie, I've been over my findings three times, there simply is no other choice. I even had Dr. Fasiri check them over. There is no other option."

Tesla glared at her, "Excuse me do I get a say in this? I've already had one crazed bitch use me as a canteen, that one's going nowhere near me, regardless of my impeccable vintage." He pointed at Cassie. "Besides I'm sure there's plenty on the concrete around the flying deathtrap with PMS."

"You know Magnus; you could always tie him down and take it by force. I'm sure we've got some of that vampire proof titanium webbing in the basement still, it'd be your little fantasy in reverse." Will grinned at Nikola earning himself a glare in return.

"A child's life is at stake Will!" Helen snapped.

Kate glared at him too.

"Exactly, and they're too stubborn to see that. Can you imagine what the kid will be like? You know, assuming it survives long enough to develop a personality." Will asked gleefully, his eyes wide and a grin playing on his lips.

"Can it, Will." Kate snarled.

"It's the test tube baby of Magneto and the Phoenix!" Will supplied gleefully. "Surely feeding it blood is par for the course?"

Helen and Akbar gave him filthy looks before turning their attention back to Cassie.

Henry was trying to talk Cassie around. "If it's what the baby needs, there's no contest right, you gotta do it, huh?"

"Would you go HAP and take a chunk out of Kate or Big Guy because someone told you too?" She snarled.

"Hey that was uncalled for, Cassandra." Akbar said warningly. He was one of the few people alive that could use that tone of voice with Cassie and not get eviscerated.

"Oh the melodrama; really, the youth of today," Nikola snapped.

"I'm not that much younger than you," Cassie spat.

"Yet you still act like a spoiled teenager," Nikola retorted.

* * *

><p>"Both of you, you need to get past petty disagreements. You remember that your unborn child's life is at stake here. Put your ego's aside and stop being so selfish." Helen snapped, her patience wearing thinner by the second. They had the power to save their child, the means and the method but not the will. She had had the will, but neither the means nor method, to save Ashley, and it would always haunt her that she hadn't saved her. With all her training and experience, her little girl was still gone. "Can't you see you've been given an opportunity? An opportunity so many would be grateful for."<p>

Nikola saw the pain in her eyes and found that he was feeling guilty. He didn't need to guess what was going through her mind. He knew.

"Forget it Docs, they're both too stubborn to do the right thing. Anyway, it's not like they had any choice, is it, maybe it's better this way, no super vampire to take over the world." Kate tried the bad cop routine.

Akbar smirked at what the young Indian woman was doing. In her heightened emotional state, Cassie would rise to the bait like a trout to a lure.

"How dare you!" Cassie growled, her voice suddenly deepening and her eyes turning obsidian. "This is _my_ child, they've done nothing wrong, and they deserve to live as much as the next child."

Kate smiled meaningfully at Cassie. At first Cassie thought she meant it vindictively but the smile was true, and she could only sense compassion and relief from the young woman.

Will pointed at Helen's stomach, "That is the next child. Love child of Magneto and Jean Grey."

"Will, you're not helping." Helen told him.

Biggie smacked him round the head and he shut up quickly. Will rubbed his head and frowned at the Sasquatch.

Henry was deep in thought, "Does that make me Wolverine?" he asked, and his shocked expression told the room he hadn't meant to say that out loud. It didn't stop them from glaring at him.

"So your kid deserves to live, but you won't feed them what they need to make it through the next few months? Makes no sense to me." Kate shrugged and folded her arms.

"You don't understand, you can't ever understand," Cassie snapped. She looked away from the group, her eyes watering and her determination starting to crumble.

The room as silent for a few moments, everyone lost in his or her thoughts. Nikola was staring at Cassie's bump as though it were an enigma of astronomical proportions.

"But I do," he told her quietly, his tone uncharacteristically compassionate.

"It's not you who has to feed on someone you know." Cassie was quiet; she was nearing breaking point, damn hormones.

"You've fought so hard to stay in control of your urges, you've finally come out on top and you don't need to touch a single drop of human blood, ever. You don't want to give in to your blood lust, you're afraid of who you could hurt but you've got no choice. You've got to risk it." Nikola stepped closer towards her, his hand reaching for hers.

Helen and Henry both looked away and shifted uncomfortably. Helen wrapped her arms around herself and shifted her gaze. Henry looked at the floor.

Nikola reached out to touch the rounded belly protecting his child. It moved beneath his hand. "This is your child Cassie, our baby, and we need to do what's right. Much as we despise it, we're not important here. Only our baby is."  
>Helen flinched but hid it well. She swallowed and tried to stop the lump forming in her throat. As much as it pained her, Cassie's baby was Nikola's, and he was going to love that child as much as the one she was carrying. Seeing him being so affectionate with Cassie, she could almost forget the means of conception and believe the child was the result of a loving relationship. She knew it was his affection for his child but it didn't stop it hurting so much, like a knife to the gut. She placed a hand protectively over her stomach and rubbed in circular motions in an effort to calm herself. She told herself she was over emotional and attributed that fact to hormones.<p>

* * *

><p>Cassie nodded slowly, "Just give me some time."<p>

Nikola nodded and released her hand. He watched as she left the room with Henry and Akbar following close behind.

Kate sensed the heightened emotions and unspoken words between Helen and Nikola.

"We've got to, go, feed the nubbins," she said grabbing Will by the arm and dragging him from the room.

"Hey!" He complained loudly from the corridor, his voice carrying back in bursts as he continued to rant.

Biggie looked up, saw that Nikola was staring at him, and said "I have to dust." He shuffled uneasily from the room.

Helen crossed the room to her window seat and fell back against the cushions, tucking her legs up underneath her as best she could. She stared out of the window absently. Her eyes glazed over as she stroked her bump in small gentle movements with the tips of her fingers and her thumb.

"Helen," Nikola began. He didn't know how to finish his sentence, so he made his way over to her, and took his usual position at the opposite end of the seat. She didn't turn to look at him, but continued to stare out of the window.

"Helen, I know have to do this. For my child but..." He faltered again; she still didn't look at him.

"It's the only true option. I made it my life's work to protect the strange and fantastical, the only way to save this creature is through your blood." She told the window pane. She knew she had just referred to his child as a creature, it was unforgivable but it helped her to rationalize her situation. She didn't want to think of it as a bouncing baby vying for his time and affections. It was selfish but it was times like this that she wished she could keep him all to herself, for her and the baby. She needed him too. Now more than ever. She needed him to help her protect their child.

"It doesn't mean we have to like it." Nikola placed his hand on hers and gently squeezed her fingers. The use of 'creature' had smarted but he understood why she had said it. He could almost hear the cogs turning as she thought.

"But at least we'll be able to live with our selves." She slipped her fingers between his, interlocking them and squeezed his hand firmly. "Immortality gives you plenty of time to dwell on your failures." She'd spent over a hundred years contemplating her mistakes, it didn't change anything, except perhaps a level of acceptance and a reminder to take guidance from the past and focus on the happy memories and more importantly, the future. Ashley's smile floated through her mind, bringing tears to her eyes.

For the next week everything was relatively quiet. Cassie was getting blood from Tesla, but not actively feeding _from_ him. That was her main condition. Other than that, nothing too drastic was happening.

That was how quiet things were, until 11:30 PM on October 11th.

* * *

><p><strong>AN 2: What could **_**possibly**_** be beginning at 11:30 at night? ;)**


End file.
